Fire Emblem Heroes: Muspell Edition?
by Code Live
Summary: Instead of heading to Askr, the summoner is whisked to Muspell instead, where he serves as its tactician. However...is he a savior like many other summoners? Or a fiery devil that we all see the king of Muspell as? Meanwhile, another summoner faces a threat to Askr, his kingdom. He must strive to stop the desecration of Askr and Nifl, and find out, who really is the true enemy.
1. Change the Universe

**I will never own Fire Emblem Heroes. This is just something I thought of.**

* * *

10/28/17

Some people think that I'm crazy. Others think that I'm quite a interesting character. Some see me as a savior. Others see me as the devil himself. Who am I?...it's up to you to decide.

My name was Kyren. I was a young man of 18 years, having just started my first year of college. There was quite a multitude of options, John Hopkins, Stanford, Harvard, etc...however, I had my sights on John Hopkins.

A student of my grades and activities could go into practically any college. Life had been boring for me, especially when I was one of the best at many things. Winning gets boring when it's always about the same stuff.

I drove down the street, going back home from the campus. My home happened to be quite close to the campus, so I didn't need to worry about dormitory or housing such as that.

As I parked the car at the side of a campus, my little brother came out. Very much like me, he was quite a genius, at 14 years old. As he got onto the car, he said, "So Kyren, how was college?"

"It was fine, Kenny." he snickered at the remark. "Which probably means boring." I sighed. "You know me too well, Kenny." While his proper name was Kenneth, I just called him Kenny for short.

While life was easy for us, being geniuses and all, everything had also become boring. At first, information seemed to be interesting for us. We kept reading the news, and kept searching on the internet to understand the overall situation with politics.

Then, came games. While they were undoubtedly fun when we first started playing them, I started to grow tired of the concept of games. It was as if they couldn't grasp a new concept.

PUBG, Fortnite, Overwatch, you name it. Yes, they were all fun. Yes, they had different goals, and sometimes different mechanics, but the concept was still the same. Shoot your opponent...such a brainless concept that even a 6 year old could think of.

Gacha games weren't any better. Games of chance, games that tested your very luck itself, only earned my further distaste. And then, RPGs. While they were fun at first glance, the concept was still the same.

Just beat your opponent. And there were rules! Limits! What did you mean, I can only use 7 moves in a battle? And to think that the enemy would just stand there awkwardly while you waited for your troops to finally talk was stupid as well. Heck, if I just needed to perform a few more movements to execute a hit that would be 3 times more powerful than my normal attacks, for me, it would be worthwhile to do these extra movements if my enemy's just going to stand there and wait for me to do so!

Even the newest hack-and-slash games didn't appeal to me. If a there was a gauge for a special move, then wouldn't that mean you got ENERGIZED instead of getting more tired with each strike?

Most of all, none of them had much meaning to it. Our teachers all taught us to be good students, to help others in times of need, and had I lived them all up? Definitely not. They were values that we never could live up to...or at least, they were values that I thought I could never live up to, though that thinking never affected my actions themselves.

Stopping the car as I parked into the parking lot, we both got off. I was 180 cm, towering over my brother who was only 172 cm. Ruffling his hair, I asked him, "So, has mom said anything?"

He shook his head. "Nothing that's really bad. Right, Kyren. What major did you take?" I shrugged. "I majored in film, minored in politics/debate." he smiled. "Yeah, politics is on my wish list as well. By the way, why do you wanna go for either?"

I entered the elevator with him, and went up to the top floor. "I suppose that filming is quite interesting for me. I've lived double lives before, each acting as a different person, with a different personality. Just...putting it on camera would be even better."

He glanced at me. "You suck at coding. You couldn't ever get any of that CGI in." I retorted, "Well, you suck at acting as well. You couldn't ever tell a lie without bursting out in laughter." he shrugged. "Fair enough."

While our parents provided a lot for us, it's not like they did anything beside that. Ever since he was born, I had been taking care of him, and besides my best friend, he was the person I cared about the most.

"Kyren, so how's your best friend doing?" I snapped from my daze. "Eh?...oh, right. Him. He's been missing from school for a few days, and even when he doesn't go missing, he often comes late. I wonder what the heck he's doing..."

My brother scratched his head. "Yeah...on a second thought, some of my friends have been doing some of the same things as well, though not as extreme as his case." I chuckled. "Even weirder, he once texted me, 'I LOST MY VIRGINITY, BRO! HAVE YOU?!'"

Kenneth nearly lost his lunch. "Pffff! What the hell, man?" I bit my lip. "Don't act so surprised. I know you know what hentai is." He rolled his eyes. "Kyren, can we not talk about that?"

I laughed a bit. "Hey, mom's not here. Anyway, I asked him who was it, and he said that it was some girl called Robin." my brother frowned. "Robin...I don't remember you talking about anyone with that name." I shrugged. "I thought she would be from our college...but, heck no."

Stepping out of the elevator, and opening the door, I looked at dinner, prepared for us. Sitting down to eat, my brother sighed. "So, why did you even let that guy beat you up at college? You could have easily punted his ass."

I raised my eyebrows. "Language, Kenneth." I warned him. I wasn't exactly keen on swearing, but strangely, I had no problem with swearing in my mother language, probably because it didn't have that much of a large effect on me.

"好啦。。媽的，這樣就沒事。。(alright...damnit, if I swear like this, I'm fine...)" I smiled. "對呀。我就是真麼難搞。（yep. I'm weird like that.)"

Half an hour later, I picked up my stuff. "I'll be going to my room, Kenny. Tell me if you need any help." Kenny shrugged. "Kyren, you know how smart we are. It's not necessary."

I gave him a warm smile. "Just saying."

* * *

A few hours later, I finished the last of my homework. Typing down the last few words, I stretched, and started to brush my teeth. Suddenly I heard a whirling of wind. I sighed. Had the window slipped open once again? Or was a prank from my broth-no, he was far too mature to do something as silly as that.

As I walked towards the window, I realized that it was still closed. Another thing caught my eye. A large gleaming red circle hovered in the middle of my room, right above my bed.

I looked at it closely, and noticed that it resembled...as if it was a small cyclone, a whirlpool. It was something that I definitely hadn't ever heard of in my explorations of the internet, though this might be what fiction often called portals.

Stuff like that usually didn't happen to me. I was the average-above-average student, brilliant but bored. So such a thing, was more of an interest to me instead of something that would send me into a state of panic.

Instead of doing the practical thing and calling the police or something, I felt inclined to go towards it, to touch it. Kiran would undoubtedly speak out against it, but then, we were very different. He couldn't control my curiosity.

Before I knew it, it suddenly sucked me in, and I started falling. Too scared to scream, I just kept on falling, waiting for the end, where I would be splattered like a pancake.

After three minutes, I could feel my descent start to slow down, and I looked at the white hole right below me, as if it was an exit. I dropped into the exit, and was deposited out of it, landing face-first into the hot mud. I picked myself up, wondering what the hell was actually happening.

"啥鬼。。。（what the heck?)" I said, as I saw a woman with rather large...breasts. I wasn't exactly interested in them, as I needed to know where the heck I was. "Where am I? What is your name?"

She giggled, and twirled her staff. "My name is Loki. I am the personal advisor of Surtr, the ruler of Muspell. Are you the legendary hero?" I looked at her, and noticed my clothes. I was now wearing a coat of white and gold, with a hood across my face. I threw it off, revealing my face.

"I suppose you can believe that I am the legendary hero you believe in if you wish. My name's Kyren." I scanned the place, a fiery volcano...but for some reason, I didn't feel any heat at all. What was going on? Could it be some legendary hero power or something?

Loki tapped a weapon at the side. "Well, if you are the legendary hero, you must be able to wield this weapon as well." I looked at it. It resembled a pistol, but of much elaborate design. "I suppose I may able to."

Picking it up, I flipped it, surprised at its light weight. "I like it." pulling the trigger, I fired few unknown projectiles into the air, and it created a small portal, in which a man fell out. "Hello, my name is Takumi. I am the second prince of Hoshido, wielder of the divine Fujin Yumi. Whatever is your business with me, spit it out quickly."

Another man fell out, having silver hair and wearing fashionable clothing. "My name is Virion. Pleased to be of service." A child fell out. "The name's Raigh. I must master the dark arts...so don't talk to me."

And lastly, a teenager feel out, resembling me, but having a lighter skin tone and lighter, shorter, hair. "I'm Matthew, servant of House Ostia. Pleased to be of service."

I heard a few soldiers yelling, and I looked at them. "Loki, who are they?" Loki glared at them. "They're Nifl soldiers, enemies of our kingdom." she placed her hand on my shoulder. "Kyren, Would you mind helping us in this instance?"

Shrugging, I nodded in agreement. "Very well, Loki. Takumi...kill the Nifl spear fighter." He nodded, and shot him down. "Raigh..move towards the Nifl axe fighter, and take him out with your tome." With a spell, Raigh killed the axe fighter as well.

I looked at Virion, Loki, and Matthew, wondering who to choose. Matthew, then. "Alright...Matthew...weaken all the enemies around." I said, checking his weapon. Apparently he specialized in weakening foes all around.

As the remaining enemies attacked, Matthew was hit by a Nifl sword fighter, and a Nifl archer, though he retaliated against the archer. I looked at them all. "Alright...Loki, heal him." I said, checking her staff's usabilities. She had psychic as for now.

Healing up Matthew, I then ordered Takumi to take out the Nifl sword fighter, and then used Matthew and Raigh to gang up on the bow fighter, killing him. "There we go."

As I went towards Loki, she smiled at me. "It seems that you're quite adept with tactics...our king is powerful, but I have to admit...he's not exactly the brightest around. I trust that you'll be able to help guide us."

I turnt around to look at her. "Aren't you his advisor? Won't you be able to guide him?" Loki laughed a little. "You see, Kyren...you happen to be the legendary hero, and have a much bigger name and reputation than me in the legends. You may...have a greater scope of influence on him than me."

I nodded. "Well...very well. However, I do expect him to at least treat me with respect, as I would to him." Loki shrugged. "Oh, he will. After all, you are the legendary hero."

More Nifl soldiers ran in, challenging them. As I looked at them, I swore. "媽的。。給我那麼多垃圾幹啥？(Damnit...what's up with giving me more trash?)" I looked at the opposition, full of axe fighters. They were big and strong, high in attack and defense...something that Raigh would break through, but then, he was only one mage. The others were all ranged units as well, meaning they wouldn't be able to retaliate.

I glared at Loki, giving a condescending tone as I spoke. "Is Muspell poor to the point that you have no other fighters?" Loki laughed. "Oh, summoner. You can't possibly think so lowly of us, eh?" I scoffed. "I let my expectations go down so I won't be disappointed."

Two swordswomen jumped into the fray, facing the Nifl axe fighters. "Loki, how're yyou doing?" Loki smiled. "Oh, we're doing great. Right now, the great hero has arrived, to help us in or conquest against Nifl." They looked at me. The one on the wyvern said, "OH? What's your name, O great hero?"

I responded, "My name is Kyren. Don't think that I can fight. I only have my wits, and this weapon that can summon warriors." I looked at the insides of it. "I'm afraid there are no more projectiles for me to use. However…I would like to see what you two can do."

The one with pink hair smiled. "Oh, we won't disappoint. Just get us to our full potential, and we'll serve you well" I looked at them. They both had a necklace, consisting of 4 silver stars. I looked at Loki, realizing that she had the same necklace, only 4 stars as well. I looked at the axe fighters, and examined their stats. They were all wearing 4 star necklaces as well. "Alright, you two. How may I refer to you?"

The pink-haired one said, "My name is Princess Laevatein. I don't talk much, but pleased to meet you." The one on the wyvern said, "My name is Princess Laegjarn, General of the Muspell Army. I am Laevatien's older sister, and it's good to have you in our service."

I nodded. "Alright….get the big guy out first." I said, pointing at an axe armor knight with a wicked-looking brave axe. If you fight the others first and get weakened by them, you'll become easy prey for him if he ever reaches you. So as a precaution, take him out first."

I moved Loki, using her to hit the axe knight, then used Takumi to shoot down an axe Pegasus knight. Then, I directed Laegjarn and Laevatein to gang up on the armor knight.

They savagely sliced at him with their swords. "Die…already." Within a matter of seconds, the axe armored knight was gone, and the other axe fighters became easy prey for the two princesses.

They headed towards me. "You're quite a dependable Tactician, Kyren. It seems that like this….we may be able to conquer Nifl!" I responded with a frown. "Wait…any idiot could have done that. Why are you praising me like that? Can't you see the various numbers on everyone? Stuff like various symbols, descriptions, etc?" They frowned."What numbers? What symbols?"

I then realized what must have happened. I was the legendary hero after all. Maybe…I would be able to see things that they normally wouldn't see. Hm…I guess that explained a lot. I looked at the Nifl soldiers. "How long have you all been fighting the Nifl soldiers?" Loki replied, "5 months or so."

I grinned. "Then….allow me to finish this war quickly." As they stared at me, obviously surprised at my boast, a few horses were heard, along with sounds of other animals.

A buch of Nifl cavaliers were seated on polar bears, ready to charge towards us. Their leader was a mage, someone using a green-coloured tome. "Muspell…soldiers! Show no mercy towards them!" The polar bears, along with their riders, charged towards us.

I glared at them, and thought quickly. "Okay, the lance bears have overall lower defense. The green mage on a horse will be easy prey for Raigh, so I'll save her for last. The ones with the axes and swords, I'll leave them as prey for Laevetein and Laegjarn, though I'll have Loki heal them up after they fight the red polar bears. And as for Matthew, I'll use him first to make it an easier fight for everyone. Yes…that's good."

Everything went according as I planned, and until the green calvary mage was the last one standing. She looked at me, holding her tome. I approached her. "Surrender, and I may spare you." She shook her head. "Never!" I frowned, wondering why she refused when it was obvious that she was overpowered. Maybe stupidity?

I looked at Raigh. "Finish her off." He activated Raurowolf, instantly knocking her off her horse. She got up on her horse again, and started galloping away.

I scratched my head. "Well…everything went as I planned." Laegjarn held out her hand. "Shall we keep on going? I nodded. "I will keep on going until we decimate the ones attacking us."

As our little group marched forward, we saw a a princess, wielding a lance. Laegjarn yelled at her, "Surrender, and we may spare you!" I personally didn't mind. If they joined us, then that would be more members. If they refused then they would be the perfect stepping stones to becoming more powerful.

The warrior with the lance spat. "Yield? Never! Soldiers, charge!" As we kept on fighting, I checked their stats, seeing who was the strongest. Laegjarn was the fastest and had the most defense overall, but she had pitifully low resistance. Laevatein on the other hand, had decent offensive stats, but she had mediocre defenses, and her speed was lower than her sister's, though she had more in power.

Takumi was undoubtedly better than Virion, as he had more speed and power as opposed to Virion, not to mention he had a legendary bow. Matthew wasn't the best for killing enemies, but he was quite good at making enemies weaker, to prepare them for the slaughter. Raigh was decent, though I wondered where that kid lived. Man, these clothes looked bad on him.

As I looked at the lancer, I noticed that she had some odd quirks. She had great resistance, and decent defense as well, and I noticed her special. It was soething called Ice mirror. I looked at it, and growled. This was meant to counter ranged enemies. It appeared that I really needed use someone, preferably melee, to take her out.

Someone who had both high speed, and good attack. I didn't have any green units as for now, but the overall situation had me figured out on what the concept of combat was.

Red was stronger against greens, blue was storng against reds, and greens were strong against blues. However, colorless foes had no clear advantage, or any clear disadvantage.

Maybe that was why they were all neutral ranged units…maybe there might be exceptions. But as far as I knew, colorless units could be either the most reliable or unreliable of fighters.

As we went on, I positioned Takumi to kill some of the flyers, and Virion to kill the rest. I then moved Laegjarn to engage an enemy, as she had the highest speed out of us all. And if having at least 5 speed over an opponent meant that one could double the other, this could potentially give one a huge advantage.

Laegjarn killed the green wyvern with a slice of her sword, and gaint 1 point of attack, 1 point of speed, and one more point of defense, able to double the lancer now. "I hope you can keep up results akin to this, Kyren."

Laevatein attacked the polar bear who charged towards her, and gained points in everyone of her stats. "I shine brighter…than ever." As Matthew hit a foe with one of his daggers, I positioned Loki to kill the weakened Niflem, finishing him off. She gained 2 stat boosts, SP and attack she gave a sly smile. "Oh, are you sure they're really the results you're seeing?"

As the troops were decimated, I looked at the lancer. "Surrender already."

She stood her ground, twirling her lance. "I an Fjorm, Nifl's second princess! And I will not be defeated by a bunch of punks like you all!" I nodded. "Very well…" With that, I sent Matthew to weaken her but much to my surprise, she counterattacked. "How?..." I looked at her lance, Leptir. "Oh…enables user to counterattack at any distance. I see….that explains a lot. Laegjarn, get her."

Laegjarn charged into the fray, battling the other princess.

As they fought, Fjorm swung her lance at Laegjjarn, hitting her. Laegjarn then retaliated, and activated her special. "This is how it's got to be." Charging at the enemy princess, she finished her off, knocking her back.

I went over to her, contempt in my eyes. "Yield already." She spit in my face. "Never." I wiped it off in disgust, as she disappeared, probably with warp magic.

As I went over to them, I congratulated the small squad, shaking each of their hands. "Good job, everyone." They waved it off. "Nah, it's really just due to your tactics." I smiled. "Hey, don't thank me yet until the real challenges have been conquered."

They nodded. "So…where to, now?" I looked around the place. It was a hellhole, reeking of war…but, those people, they actually seemed decent. Laegjarn herself was the most friendly, well mannered but yet playful around her sister.

Laevatein was less social, not saying much, but loved being around with her isster, or so I observed.

Loki was more of a mysterious figure. She had this condescending tone at times, and she was a bit naughty as well. However, she apparently seemed to have an interest in me, though I couldn't tell whether if it was because of my Breidabilik, or my looks, or my intellect.

I crossed my arms. "I would like to meet the ruler of this kingdom. Or should I say, your dad." I said, looking at Laegjarn and Laevetien.

Laevetein nodded. "Sure. We'll introduce you to him."

Half an hour later, I heard the king and his advisors arguing about the state of Nifl. "King Surtr, we've been on here for 5 months! Is it really worth it?" "Yes! WE must annex these lands!" "But King Surtr, 3 months was already a great toll, and that was only for our first kingdom! This one has taken 5 months, and I don't know if we can keep on going!" "At this point, we might even LOSE to Nifl!"

Loki, Laegjarn, and Laevatein urged me on. "C'mon. Go Impress him." I walked in, displaying a great show of both flamboyancy as I walked in. "Perhaps, I may be of help to the situation."

The biggest man, who was wearing a crown and also vaguely resembled a gorilla, said, "Who the hell are you? Explain youself, and your purpose, or else I, King Surtr, have you burnt to the stake." I bowed to him. "Oh, no need to be so violent, King Surtr. Of course I have a purpose."

Surtr looked at me. "State it, then." I began to speak. "O king, live forever! I announce that, if you employ my help, I can guarantee that the capital of Nifl will be taken over in within 1 month."

The advisers looked at me, incredulity in their eyes. "Who the hell do you think you are?" I glared at them. "I am Kyren, the Hero of Legend. And I'm quite sure that you are quite brave to speak to a legendary hero in a tone like that." They all gasped in shock. "He..he's the Hero of Legend?"

I laughed. "Not so brave anymore, eh?" I slipped over, sitting beside Surtr. "You've been on here for 5 months, and at this point, you might even lose. If I can make it in 1 month, imagine the amount of lives I could save, correct?"

They all nodded. Surtr glared at me. "Is there any proof to your skill?" I motioned to the three girls. "They can." Laegjarn went out. "Father, Kyren could be invaluable to our cuase. He can summon troops from other worlds, and he's a great tactician. Maybe…he could even beat the realm known as Askr, who is rumored to have a great tactician as well." Loki added, "He even defeated the two eldest princesses of Nifl, who are known to be great strategists as well.

Surtr looked at me. I was 18 years old, 180 cm, with long black hair, uncommon for boys my generation.

He then nodded, giving his approval. "Very well. I shall trust you. However…if you don't complete it in one month, I will have your head on a platter." I shrugged, unfazed by the threat. "Very well, Surtr. However…if I succeed, I desire some benefits as well."

Surtr looked at me. "And what are they?" I gave off an evil smile. "After we 're finished with your agenda…I'll invite you all to my world…to conquer it." Surtr looked at me. "Your world? Burn it to the ground?"

I nodded, utter contempt in my eyes. "I wish to destroy my own world…and make a better one in its place. After all…before creation, must come destruction, corrrrect?"

Surtr gave a grin. "I like your way of thinking, Kyren. What title shall you request of?" I replied, "My title…shall be Grand Summoner Kyren. Grand Summoner Kyren, of Muspell." I stood on the table, gaining the attention of the council.

"And from today, we shall keep on moving forward with Surtr's dream, annexing the realms across the universe. We shall reshape the universe into our vision, our perspective, our image! Hark! The hero of legends speaks! And you shall listen…and obey." I bent down, chuckling evilly as I intimidated them all.

A council elder stood up. "What makes you think that we will listen to you? You're so young!" I nodded. "True. I may be young…but by no means I am inexperienced, nor stupid."

I looked at them all. "Follow me, and you may see a brighter future for us all, as we walk through the flames. I stand here not as a hero of legend, not as the Grand Summoner of Muspell, but as your fellow man! A man who wishes to make the universe better for us all! Let us not give up on our dreams, but fulfil them, something that humanity has rarely achieved through the many centuries! Now…will you follow me or not? Are you a bold dragon - or a cowardly snake?"

A elder stood up. "You little piece of shit, you think you can convince us, thinking using loud and complex words, you can-" Laevetein slashed his spine out, and kicked him onto the table. "Cowardly snakes…are as good as dead." I smiled as they murmured, fear in their eyes and voices. "I hope all of you understand this. You have nothing to fear...unless if you oppose me."

* * *

 **Omake:**

Kyren goes home. "Hi everyone! Here's my brother, who's just as smart but not as old as I am! Who am I? Gr...I should have told you earlier! I am Kyren, an intelligent youth who is probably more intelligent than you are- ooh, a flaming ethereal hole! I'll go in! Nothing bad gonna happen...right?"

Kyren jumps in, and then gets sucked into the portal. "Weeeeee!" when he first gets out of the portal, he meets Loki. "You're the legendary hero!" "And you're Tits McGee!"

Loki stares at him. "...I have a feeling you don't have a lot of friends."

"Shut up! It was mutual!"

* * *

 **Thank you so much for reading this! This just came out as a shower thought, but I'm planning on continuing this.**

 **Edit: as of 6/21/18, I will be adding omakes to the end of each chapter.**


	2. Bolverk's Plight

10/29/2017

I walked across the hallway of Muspell, as Loki lead me to my bedroom. "By the way, I feel like your outfit is rather impractical. What's the entire point in it? You don't even have a freaking bra." Seriously, all she had to do was just to lower it a bit, and the boys around would go into a craze.

She giggled, and snuggled close to me. "All the more to pleasure you, silly." I scoffed. What the hell was this woman thinking? "You're not my type. Sorry to disappoint you." I said, still completely stoic.

"By the way, would you happen to have any...friends of yours?" I glanced at her, my expression changing a little. "I do. Not many, but I do. How do I explain this...people may think that I'm a friend, where in reality, I may not consider them as friends. It takes quite a bit of effort to truly build a friendship with me, I'm afraid."

Loki laughed a bit. "So...summoner, who's your best friend in...your world?" I was sent into a daze, as I thought of my best friend, an individual named Kiran. Ever since we were young, we knew each other, played with each other, discussed anime together, and sometimes traded our diaries with each other. He would sometimes write some no-brainer comments on my diary, or trolling comments, much to my disgust and amusement.

"Right...sorry for not answering. He's an individual named Kiran, and...we were the top of our district of education, best friends. I guess when I'm done conquering this world, I'll go back to see him, to ask him to join me." I said, as I flashed back to the past.

"So, right now, who do you ship in the DBZ series?" I said, skipping across the sidewalk as we headed to the SAT class "Er...the canon ones?"

"No, Goku x Vegeta 4 life." Kiran was a bit shocked, as he never thought of me as a yaoi fan, and due to the fact that I sounded so serious about it. "Er...ookay?...interesting?..." I scoffed, laughing.

"Dude, I'm just kidding around." He slammed his basketball to the ground, and caught it. "Damn, I can never figure you out whether you're kidding or not. You can just act so serious about so many things, and then troll others like that. So, how's your girlfriend?"

I kicked the dirt, contempt in my eyes. "Seriously, I'm sick of her, always overreacting to stuff, and then making me look like the villain." Kiran glanced at me. "Yeah, you should really break up with her."

"Yeah, I should. She's pretty, but seriously, I'm sick of political correctness and sh*t like that. At this point, even going yaoi would be better." I put a hand around his shoulder. "Should we?"

Kiran gave a disgusted look. "What?! No! That's disgusting!" I gave him a weird look. "Why not? It's not like you've ever kissed a boy before." He retorted, "Dude, maybe not in the open, where your girlfriend is in plain sight!"

I laughed, and realized she was there. Well, great timing, I guess. "Well...I guess breaking up was easy." She didn't even look at me as she sauntered off, her long black hair flowing in the wind as her fair skin shining in the sunlight.

Putting myself off him, I put my hands behind my back. "Well, at least we solved the girlfriend problem." He deadpanned. "Man, I'm not even sure if that's smart or just plain crazy."

I sighed. "You know, after this, we should really just have a good ol' game of basketball."

A few hours later after the cruel and unusual punishment that was known as studying, we both headed to the court. "Seriously, I just don't understand it. We're both smart enough to get good scores on this, but why do we absolutely need to get 1600s?"

Kiran shrugged. "I just suppose that they want us to get on the news or something. I'm not exactly too sure, as...I suppose like the earlier stages of my life are always the boring ones."

I dribbled the basketball, and headed to the court. "1v1, basic three-line thing?" He nodded. "Yeah."

With that, I passed it from hand to hand, letting it bounce on the ground. As he bent down, I immediately took my chance, and bounced it right between his legs. However, he apparently had anticipated that move, and he moved his right leg 90 degrees, letting it bounce off his leg, as he stole it.

I ran in front of him, blocking his path to the goal. He decided to bait me by faking the left, and then pushed forwards to the right, purposely trying to catch me off guard.

I would have none of it, and as I stepped left, I pivoted, and with one swift movement, I stole the ball from behind him with a swipe, and dribbled out of the third line, leading him to wait under the basketball hoop.

Swearing under my breath, I knew what he was planning. I was a horrible free thrower, and if I got close, Kiran might be able to anticipate my move and take away the ball.

Deciding to take another path, I dribbled towards him, and instead of jumping and tossing the ball into the hoop, I switched the ball from my left to my right, and he jumped up, preparing to block my throw.

Taking the chance, I immediately sidestepped him, and then jumped up, throwing the ball into the hoop. He took it. "Oh, I'm gonna get you this time." As he dribbled towards me, I did the same thing again, to bait his bait. However, this time, he threw it. I jumped up, hoping to block it, only to realize by the time I had landed on the floor, he was miles gone.

Apparently this time, he had faked his throw, and I had fallen for it. However, hope wasn't gone yet. I ran after him, and as he threw the ball, I jumped, hoping to knock the ball out in midair.

I hit it alright, but instead, my influence on the ball knocked it straight into the hoop. I groaned, wondering why I couldn't just leave it alone. Kiran grinned. "Kyren, you can't just leave it alone, can you."

I told Loki all of this, and she had her hand on her mouth, giggling. "My, my. You're quite a naughty one." I rolled my eyes. "That was 2 years ago. I'm not like that anymore."

She stopped at a door. "Here it is, Kyren. Your very own room. I suppose...I'll be visiting her a lot." I didn't care much about it, as I took off my cloak, adopting battle armor, then put my cloak back on. "I'll be heading outside. I need to see Laegjarn."

As I met Laegjarn, she was polishing her silver sword. "What have you come for, Kyren?" I asked her, "Are there any maps of Nifl that have been charted? At the same time, what about Muspell?"

She got up, and twirled her sword. "We do have maps of Muspell, but we don't have any maps of Nifl yet. Is there a problem?" I nodded. "Yes...if I know the geography of Nifl...it would give us a great advantage." I pointed at her wyvern. "I suppose we could go for a ride, right?"

Nodding, she willed her wyvern to calm down, and accept me. "Now, now, Cyclonus. Let him on. He won't hurt you." Cyclonus bowed his head, and allowed me to sit on him. Getting behind me, she spurred Cyclonus to the air.

As we flew on, I felt the soft wind against my face. It was...comfortable. However, I shook it off, and gazed at the kingdom below me. "Hm..." With that I took out my notebook, and started scribbling furiously onto it.

Within two hours, I had already scribbled the outline of the kingdom onto my notebook. "Alright...now, are there any scribes or artists around?" She nodded. "Yes. Do you wish to enlarge it, to piece it together?"

I nodded. "Yes. With that, I may announce our battle plans." After a few hours, I had the plans presented, on an attack on the city known as Bolverk. They had been laying siege to it, but hadn't even broken through in 5 months. "Alright...we have the sun over here at this time during noon. With the sun in the archers' eyes, it'll be much harder for them to shoot the wyvern and pegasus knights down."

I looked at them. "While the archers are distracted, there's a river that's flowing near Bolverk. Over there, I want our strongest, toughest warriors to redirect the course of the river, and let it flow at the front of the fort. Remember, everybody, only kill soldiers. Do not harm helpless civilians. If you dare harm helpless civilians, I will have you publicly executed as an example for others."

I then looked at Loki. "Alright, after we've finished off the archers, you'll shift into the archer general, and give them the order to tell the Nifl army to head out and meet the Muspell army to battle. If you're thinking about the heavy casualties, just wait for me to finish."

I then pointed at the front wall. "They'll be least expecting us to attack over there, but that's also where we'll go. I know there will be an army ordered by Loki to go and meet our army out there to battle, but if we time it correctly by my orders, then the river water redirected will flood the Nifl army, giving us a huge advantage. Before the battle starts, I want 300 men, at dawn head over to the river, and start digging a trench so that it'll be easier for us to use walls to redirect the river. As they'll be caught off-guard, I want you all to capture the Nifl soldiers instead of killing them, so we may interrogate them and maybe even use them for future purposes."

I looked at the city. "If I am correct, the duke of the city will be over at the center of there, and when we break the wall down, they'll try to run away. With that, I will have some flying troops to drop Brave Lyn, Laegjarn, our newcomer Lukas, Minerva, and me. Over there, we'll catch the duke, and capture him for interrogation."

I looked at them. "Are there any questions?" Nobody answered. "Good. Now...right, I shall dub each and every one of you as the..." Damn...I can't use fire fighters...that just sounds so silly...Wings of Fire is already taken...wait!

"We will be known as the Eternal Flames. Keep that title to your heart, and as an eternal flame, your loyalty to Muspell shall be eternal as well, burning on forever?" The soldiers nodded. "Yes, Grand Summoner!"

* * *

As I rushed to the stables to get a ride, Laegjarn motioned her hand over. "Here. This way we can save wyverns." I nodded, and got on. "Thanks." Laegjarn flew upwards, as the wyvern knights and pegasus knights followed us.

"Eternal Flames...where did you get that from?" I thought about it. "Oh, it's just that some things in my world sound a bit similar to yours. This was just related to the subject that seemed related to your world."

She nodded. "I see..." As I glanced at the numbers at Laegjarn, I noticed that maybe...if I looked in a mirror, I could be able to see my own stats as well. I looked at her stats, and compared her to mine.

Laegjarn level 5*4star strength: 22, Spd 19, def 16, resist 3. I then looked at myself.

Kyren level 40*1 star strength: 19, Spd 30, def 2, resist 2. I deadpanned. Man...it seemed like humans of my world were significantly weaker than them...heck, I went to the gym an hour every day, and I was still like this? Man...I guess I was just good at running away. No matter, I decided. Now wasn't the time to bemoan my physical inferiority to them.

The flying knights soared into the sky, going west as the sun shone behind them. The archers tried shooting us, but their arrows were either too slow, or they had gone awry.

As we edged closer, the overall accuracy increased, but not to a great extent. I wasn't very worried, as the sun would still serve to be a great protection against the archers.

Looking back, I saw a few wyvern riders get hit, but still survive the arrows. Of course...their high defense did help them survive the extra physical damage that the arrows contained.

As a few seconds went by, I could hear some dying screams, as a few flying soldiers plummeted down, to their deaths. I sighed, focusing on the current situation. This was war, and I had no time to be concerned over matters such as this.

We all could mourn later, but what was the point of mourning? We were creating a better future for all of the realms, though through war. And as war was war, death was inevitable as well.

Nearing the archers, I smiled, as the entire fleet of airborne soldiers crashed into the archers, some dying by the weapons, others being pushed down to their deaths. All dying a painless death, I looked around, satisfied. With that, I went down the wyvern along with Laegjarn, and noticed a peculiar sight.

An archer, embroidered with fancy gold and light blue armor, was preparing to jump off the wall. I yelled, "Stop him!" In a flash, Laegjarn kneed him in the stomach, knocking all the air out of him. "Don't think you're getting away that easily."

With the archer out of breath, I stooped down, to ask him a few questions. "Listen here. Most of the guys here are dead. So if you value your life, you may want to start answering questions." He nodded. "I have nothing to lose by now."

"Alright, tell us where's General Niliem. The archer general, right?" The archer groaned. "That's me. What do you want?..." I nodded. "Alright, Loki. Do your job." As Loki headed towards the headquarters, I called, "Alright, put this man in prison! By no circumstances are you to kill him!"

Loki shifted into General Niliem's form, and then snuck into the army's headquarters. "I want every soldier out there, attacking the Muspell soldiers out there." She then headed out, and shifted back into her form, then shifted back into the general's form, giving me the signal.

With that, I scanned the area, wondering if there could be anything large enough to catch my men's attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a few boulders, most likely reserved for Muspell's army in case they ever attacked head on.

I yelled, "Alright, I want at least one of these boulders over here!" A few soldiers rushed over, and started heaving a large boulder, carrying it over. I wondered what else would prove that it would be us...yes, that would work.

"Laegjarn, i want you to set this stone on fire." She nodded, and grabbed a torch, dumped a sack of oil on it, and lit it on fire. I then motioned to Minerva. "Let's get this downhill."

Kicking out with her powerful legs, Minerva sent the boulder rolling down the wall, as a signal to the ones at the river to start redirecting it. The burly men heaved the gigantic bricks, dropping them into the banks of the river.

Slowly, the water began to trickle as the course was redirected towards the trenches, and I watched as they headed towards the gate. "C'mon, Loki...anytime now..."

A bunch of Niflhem soldiers ran out, opening the gate. "Muspell scum! This ends right here, right now! We'll put an end to your pathetic existence! For honor! For Glory! FOR NIFL!" the leader cried out, as the soldiers followed suite.

I laughed as they roared. "Oh, all of you have no idea what's waiting for you." Laevatein and her army tensed, probably wondering what was going on. They readied their weapons, probably thinking that my plan had failed, and they had to fight on to the death.

To their surprise, and my amusement, the river rapids swept the Nifl army off their feet, flooding the entire army with cold, powerful water. I signaled for another boulder to be thrown down, and Lukas kicked it, as it went down the walls, signaling them to attack.

Laevetein drew her silver sword, and yelled out to her army, "On his orders! Capture them all!" They charged forward, weapons and chains in their hands, ready to capture the entire Nifl army.

A few tried to stand against them, but due to the severe disorientation that the sudden flooding had caused, not to mention the amount of unconscious soldiers, they were all captured, and led away by Laevatein within minutes.

I smiled, and got on Laegjarn's wyvern. "Alright...to the castle keep. We'll find him there." As we were just in close proximity above the keep, we were dropped. I hung onto Laegjarn, as Cyclonus dropped as well. I was mostly waiting for them to catch me, and then put me back down.

As we were about to hit the glass roof of the keep, the wyverns caught our little squad once again, halting our movement. After a second of reeling, they dropped us again, as we crashed through the glass ceiling, right behind the duke and his bodyguards, who were readying to leave the building.

Laegjarn landed on the floor, and drew her silver sword, pointing it at them. "You've lost." Brave Lyn dropped from the air as well, and her horse dropped from the sky, landing on the floor and allowing its rider to sit neatly on its saddle. "You can't outrun the wind."

Minerva crashed through the window as well, and swung Hauteclere. "Your gods aren't answering, I can tell." Lukas followed, and pointed his lance at them. "Pray that this ends quick." I landed, and immediately I felt and heard a sickening crunch as my legs turned to jelly.

Looking down, my feet had touched the ground, but immediately collapsed as my weight came upon them. I couldn't feel them at all, but I knew what had happened, and it was clear proof that I was not as durable as the heroes over here.

As soon as the sickening crunch sounded around the hall, Laegjarn spun around to face me. "Kyren! Are you okay?" I nodded, groaning. "For the time being, yes. As long as no soldier sneaks upon me, I think I'll be safe...but my legs are in a bad shape right now, so the most I can do is just to give you orders."

The bodyguards drew their weapons, daring the four to go on. They consisted of a green raven tome user with triangle adept, bow breaker and iceberg, a sword fighter with a wo Dao, Fury, wrath 2, and moonbow, a lancer with slaying lance, Fury, vantage, and bonfire, and an archer with a brave bow, death blow 3, Spd smoke, and Ignis.

Before I could stop her, Brave Lyn rushed into the fray, immediately attacking the green tome, and I yelled as she instead got doubled. She gasped, as she flew backwards, right besides me.

"How...aren't mages supposed to have low defense?" I looked at the mage. "He had a raven tome, and bow breaker, along with triangle adept. Unless if he was on extremely low health, you couldn't have thought of beating him."

She groaned, and looked at me, disappearing. "Why couldn't you say that earlier?" I put my head in my left hand, sighing. "I wish I could. But you're just too fast."

Lyn coughed into her hand. "I...wish I would have known you better. How are you so good at this?..." I shrugged. "I'm just very, very intelligent. And I'm smart enough to know it as well."

She coughed again. "Kyren...you must lead them. Show them...that Nifl can be conquered. Show that...you can melt its icy heart." I frowned. "Er...you do know I can revive you, right?" Her eyes widened. "Oh. Oh! Well...now that I think about it, I overdramatizing things, right?" with that, she disappeared.

I looked at them all. First...I needed to get rid of that dratted mage. "Minerva, take out that mage! Laegjarn, stop fighting against that swordsman! Lukas, shield everybody!"

Minerva jumped through the air, and slashed at the mage, her axe immediately reducing him into a nameless body on the floor. As the three other warriors approached them, Lukas jumped in front of their attacks, absorbing the brunt of the blows.

The swordsman and lancer couldn't bring themselves to even damage the bulky soldier, and he swung his spear, taking out the swordsman. The axe warrior attacked him, dealing a hefty amount of damage to his armor.

Sending Laegjarn in, she finished the axe warrior off in one blow with a vertical slash, leaving him to fall face-first onto the floor. Minerva then grabbed the lancer, and buried Hautclere in his head, killing him instantly.

As the duke hurried away, I pointed in his direction. "Don't let him escape!" The three nodded, and ran in the direction, as I waited for them to come by.

She brought him to me. "Alright...what should we do with him?" I looked at him, grabbing his chin. "Alright...are there any maps or anything?" the only response I received was saliva, right in my face.

He snarled at me, "That'll be the only answer I'll ever give you." His face then suddenly morphed from a face of defiance, into a face of pure shock and pain. "What...what?!"

A silver sword was sticking out of his chest, and Laegjarn's hand was on the hilt of it. I understood what she thought, she thought that he was useless as he would never give me information. However...that wasn't true!

I could have treated him with kindness and respect, and slowly pulled out valuable information out of him, as I had my own way with people. But wait...I thought, Maybe I could save him! This would be even better!

And then, my hopes were dashed as she pulled the sword up, splitting his skull into half. I looked at what he used to be, and then let the corpse drop onto the floor. I didn't want to give her a lecture or a discussion right now. I wanted my legs back.

I sighed, and put my head in hands. "Gah...anyway, get a healer for me." However, it turned out, that it would be 20 minutes before they could get the nearest cleric over. I groaned, and noticed that there were some orbs near the throne. "Hm...maybe..."

I loaded the orbs into the Breidabilik, and shot it into the air. I picked colorless, as they were the ones with the healers, and out came a Maria. She landed on the ground gracefully, and looked at us all. "Hello, I'm Maria, a princess of Macedon! I'm not experienced in magic, but I can use my staff to heal others! I wonder if Onee-chan's around..." She turned around to look at Minerva. "Onee-chan!"

Minerva hugged her sister. "Maria! I never thought I would see you in this world!" she looked at me. "Thank you for bringing my sister over." I nodded. "No problem...now, can she please heal me?"

Maria looked at my legs. "What happened to you?" I sighed. "I dropped from a relatively high place...and now my legs are basically ground meat." She hurried over, and started to heal my legs. "There. They should be good now."

Getting up, I started to move them, amazed at the amount of time. "Wow...so this is the power of staves?" Maria nodded. "You're...not of this world, right?" I shook my head. "I suppose...that our world has differing levels in capabilities."

Maria looked at me. "What do you mean?" I sighed. "You see, if I was back in my world, it would take me...maybe a month to fully heal these two legs. But...your staves...that's simply amazing."

I moved the throne aside, to reveal more orbs and golden stones, feathers, and badges. "Whoa...this is crazy. This is a lot..." as more Muspell soldiers came in, I pointed to the treasures. "Move these to the Muspell treasury. Meanwhile, I'm going to have a word with Princess Laegjarn later...after I revive Brave Lyn."

* * *

The next day, I was reading the Muspell news in my bedroom, in Muspell castle. It was reporting that the city of Bolverk, which had been besieged for 5 months with no considerable damage done to it, had been taken over within an hour. They were all flattering me, and exaggerating the details.

"The almighty summoner jumped through the window, and landed with a ultra-cool pose, such as this!" it was a hilariously inaccurate drawing of me. As only the royal family and Loki really knew my face, as I hardly took off my hood, they decided to go for a side-view.

They had me drawn in full fledged custom-made armor based on the summoner's cloak, and with Breidabilik as a weapon. I looked at it, considering to order for special armor to be created for me.

As I wouldn't be fighting much due to my hilariously weak combat skills, I started writing on a scroll, to the royal blacksmiths. "By the title of the Grand Summoner, I request a set of custom-made armor, made with your best metals and best blacksmiths. I would like it to be durable, yet light, as I still must retain my mobility if a retreat is required. I expect it to be fancy, preferably with fire elements, as I lead the Eternal Flames themselves. I want it delivered to my room within 5 days. Please do not hesitate to inform me if the time needed is too short, as I know nothing of black smithery."

A few minutes later, the messenger ran to my room, knocking. I got up from my chair, surprised that they would be so quick. As he gave me the letter, I gave a satisfied grin.

"Do not worry, Grand Summoner. We will be able to make the suit of armor within 3 days, and have it delivered to your room within that time. You are welcome, Grand Summoner. Such a task is no problem for us."

I clasped my hands, and went back to reading the news. As I kept on reading the article, occasionally laughing at its exaggerated moments, I saw a sentence that caught my eye."

"And after the battle, Grand Summoner Kyren said to the beautiful Princess Laegjarn, 'Princess Laegjarn, may I have a word with you?' What could this mean?! Has he already set his sights on her?! OMG!"

With that, I immediately got up, and crushed the scroll, outraged and embarrassed. "Alright, what the hell is the media saying?! Whoever who wrote that line, someone find me that bastard, and let me have a word wi-just get him or her! Crush these rumors right now!"

The guards nodded, and started to spread the word. I sighed, and walked around, heading to the princess's chamber. Wondering where she was, I sighted Laevatein instead, my question answered immediately, but in the wrong form.

She looked at me curiously, and then motioned me to come over. "We need to talk." I walked over, and she sat down at a table with two chairs, on a balcony of Muspell castle.

She often didn't speak, but for some particular reason, she was open to me enough to have a conversation, though I could tell that the intimacy was not on the same level as her sister.

That was understandable, as I had only been here for 3 days. However, it may have stemmed from the fact that the Muspell elders were hypocrites who often talked of peace, but yet the war on Nifl was their idea.

Even though the entire nation was fiery, there was still a sort of beauty to it. Situated on a dormant volcano, the entire castle was constructed not out of rough, black, rock, but shiny, pitch-black obsidian.

I gazed down at the kingdom below the castle, guarded by walls constructed out of black marble. She cleared her throat, redirecting my attention back to her. "Why do you fight alongside us?"

I thought about it for a second, caught slightly off-guard, but I retained my composure, and answered. "I suppose...when I saw your kingdom, I saw that we had a similar vision. To take this world...and remake it."

Laevatein played with her hair, and said, "I suppose that it is true that we want to change this world. However, in many books I read...they often talked of that only tolerance and peaceful measures could ensure peace across the universe."

I shook my head. "That's nonsense. Even if we could ever make a peace through cowardly measures such as these...it would only be a fake, tense peace. There would still be tension, and it wouldn't hold for very long."

She looked at me. "I rather enjoy talking to you, Kyren. I am a weapon. I'm not supposed to think, or so I was taught. But yet...sometimes, I have a desire to think, to have opinions at times. It's...rather strange." Drinking her cup of tea, she asked, "What is your realm like? A realm of what exactly? Of war? Of peace? Of joy? Of sorrow?"

I chuckled bitterly in contempt. "It's a realm of lies. A few million people have this belief, in which its own scriptures orders them to kill any one not of their own. And many of them follow the orders, wreaking havoc across the realm itself. But yet, many...historians claim that this is the longest peace we've ever had, an obviously untrue claim. Other times, our kingdoms' leaders will try to defend the people of this belief, saying that not all of them will kill innocents, and even try to defend the belief itself, claiming that it is a peaceful belief, when the belief requires the deaths of every human being who is not one of them, or even any one of them who refuses to kill. It truly is a realm of lies."

She leant on her sword lazily. "So...that's why you offered us to conquer your own realm, eh?" I nodded. "Such a realm of lies...is already rotten to the core. Think of it as a rotten apple. What can you do with it?"

Laevatein scoffed. "Absolutely nothing. Just get rid of it." I smiled. "Exactly. The ones calling for changes...are foolish. It has already gone so far it cannot be changed anymore. My realm is rotten to the core...which is why I wish to destroy its society, and then rebuild it from its very foundations itself."

She stood up. "I'll end our chat here. My intellect is leagues below yours; I'll go training now. It was enjoyable, Kyren." She walked off, with a wave. I waved back, heading towards Laegjarn. As I walked through the hallways, I crashed into her, and we were holding our foreheads in pain and surprise within moments after we collided.

"Ay, my apologizes, Princess." She waved it off. "Guards, don't demand more apologizes. It's alright, Grand Summoner. And you two are dismissed, go get a drink or something. We have something to discuss that is not meant for you to know."

"Alright, we can discuss the rumors later. Laegjarn, what you did today was...something that I found fault with."

She looked at me. "What is it, Kyren?" I sat down. "Look, you shouldn't have killed that duke." She scoffed. "That dratted duke? He spit saliva at you. Of course he deserved to die."

I tried to brush it off, and explain it to her. "Look, I can handle a few spits or so, even though it's disgusting. He might have given us the information, if you gave me enough time to convince him."

Laegjarn crossed her arms. "Your point?"

I closed the door, and turned around to face her. "Laegjarn, killing him was a huge mistake, that gave us less options on winning this war. Do you understand what I mean?"

Laegjarn threw a knife into the wall, hitting one of the targets, a bullseye. "Would you mind explaining why? I have an idea of what you may say, but I'm not entirely sure."

I sat down on a sofa, while the fire started to warm me up. Taking a sip of tea, I asked her, "Do you understand the cycle of revenge?" Slowly nodding, she said nothing as I continued. "The cycle of revenge...is something absolutely horrible."

Pausing for a brief moment to gaze at the fire, I continued on. "The duke was killed, which means that his family members will undoubtedly seek us for revenge. If we hadn't killed him, we may have coaxed him, or used him as a tool to convince Nifl to surrender, or potentially weaken them. However, his family members will do anything to avenge his death...sometimes, some individuals are so obsessed with revenge to the point they disregard their own lives. That...is the most dangerous type of fighter, the fighter who will disregard his or her own life to reach his or her goal."

She glanced at me. "So...that was why you decided to spare the soldiers, instead simply capturing them?" I nodded. "I don't want to create crazed soldiers desiring our lives for the loss of their loved ones. It's a simple and foolish concept, but yet so many people still fall into that trap."

She lay down on the other sofa, stretching her arms out. "So...this cycle of revenge will keep on going...unless if one stops it, or if it was never initiated in the first place."

Sitting up, she put her foot on the table between us. "I understand my errors. Such a thing is dishonorable...killing an unarmed person...what is there to brag about? No, that's just shameful and cowardly...not to mention I will inadvertently create such soldiers with a miserable life...this isn't honor. This is just foolishness."

I said nothing, preferring to not put my voice in the matters of honor. She took out a chess set, placing it on the table. "Would you mind playing with me in this game of chess?"

Still saying nothing, I slowly nodded, and helped her set the pieces up. As we played, I went for a passive approach, as she attacked me aggressively. She sent her knight forward, threatening my pawn, only for me to set another pawn up, discouraging her from performing the deed.

Noticing from our movements, I could see that she valued her pawns and pieces greatly, trying to have minimal losses while taking out my men. I, however, was akin to a sneaky predator, striking at the valuable pieces when I had the chance.

Minutes later, I was losing pieces, rapidly, and she looked at me in surprise, as I was checkmated. "It seems as if you don't enjoy this game, Kyren. Why is that?" I raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised at her perceptive comment.

Flexing my fingers, I got up, preparing to leave. "I personally don't enjoy chess." She looked at me. "Why don't you?" I glanced at her, as I went out of the door. "Such a game does not reflect the rules of reality. Or rather...the restrictions are too unlike reality."

She had a confused expression on her face. She followed me out of the door. "What do you mean by that, Kyren?" I turned around to face her. "Unlike chess, in real life, there are no rules. There's only victory, or..."

I paused, for a bit of dramatic effect. "Game over."

* * *

 **Omake**

While an archer aims at Laegjarn, Laegjarn yells, "You can't hit me!" The archer frowns. "Er...yes I can." "No you can't!" "yes I can!" the archer retorts, and then changes his direction as Cyclonus flies off to another location.

"I can see wherever you are, with my perfect eyesight..." Laegjarn then flies to the sun, and then the archer stupidly follows suite. "Gah! My eyes! Why didn't I pay attention in my science classes?!"

"Good! Now Grand Summoner, go get him!" Kyren then proceeds to jump down, and he punches the archer. The archer doesn't even flinch. "...was that supposed to hurt?"

Kyren groans. "Why are you all basically superhu-" he then gets kicked off the wall. "Gah! Why weren't you following the script?! You were the one who were supposed to fall down!"

* * *

 **Okay...regarding answers to your reviews...**

 **Guest:**

 **no, I won't be making him a Gary Stu (boring, also, look at his stats! These stats could make Odin look strong!)**

 **most of the villains aren't summonable, so still no.**

 **Roblu321:**

 **Kyren is just a corruption of the word Kiran.**

 **Think of the universe being consisted of many realms. Kyren and Surtr want to conquer these realms. If they manage to find a way to get to each and every one of these "living" realms, and conquer them, then taking control of all of these parts would mean control over the entire universe.**

 **Askr having it's own tactician...duh, Kiran. Who else am I gonna put in?**

 **And thank you to all who followed. I wasn't expecting many followers, so when I saw the count, I was surprised! Thanks a lot, I hope I can continue to entertain you all with the next update! May the flames be with you all!**


	3. Control Them All

**If you think I own Fire Emblem Heroes, you'd wish you were correct.**

* * *

Suddenly, I found myself in the midst of a familiar place. Where was I?...somewhere I called home. I looked on as people died around me, and I wondered what I was doing. Why...wasn't I stopping their deaths? This wasn't war. This was a no-barred hands down slaughter.

I looked not in fear, but more in confusion. Why were they dying? What did they do wrong? What had they done? I struggled to remember, traveling back into the past of a memory. "為何這麼做？。。。(why was such a thing done?)"

A multitude of young adults, probably college students, were yelling and in front of a building, for changes. They kept on yelling, unrelenting, despite the efforts to break it up. "然後。。。就這樣？。。。(and...just like this?...)"

Tanks were driven out, and I realized what was going to happen. However...I didn't stop it, as I knew there was no point in it. No matter how I tried to stop it, I was just one person, and one person alone, would never be able to match up against an entire army.

However, something caught my eye as I watched the scene, happening under my feet. Someone...who was of the very little friends and family that I had. My very own granduncle...was in the crowd, as the tanks bore down on them.

I froze in horror, as the first shell from the tank exploded out of its barrel, heading towards the multitude. It struck true, blood spraying across the air, as I emitted a wordless scream, desiring the violence to stop, despite knowing that such a thing was impossible.

Grasping the scene in front of me, desperately pleading for the tanks to stop, maybe push them back for the killing to stop, tears flowed down my face, as the tanks kept on firing into the crowd, blood painting the sidewalks and the walls, as troops came out with automatic rifles, spraying the bullets everywhere they went.

My uncle fell to the floor, dying in a pool of his own blood, choking on what used to be part of the system that kept him alive. I said nothing as he died, and the scene skipped to the night, where I saw a familiar figure.

"叔叔。。。叔叔！！你怎麼會這麼傻？你為何要這麼做？！(uncle! why were you so stupid?...why did you do such a thing?)" I saw the form of my father, still young. He resembled me so much when he was younger...but not anymore.

As I looked down, a soldier turned to look at me. I stumbled back in surprise, as he pointed at me. "又是一個逃掉的人！把他給斬了，絕對不能留下一個人！(it's one of the survivors! Kill him, no survivors allowed!)" he yelled.

I tried to reason with them, to tell them that I was just a passerby, but before any word could come out of my mouth, a shell was fired out, and it spun towards me...

* * *

I woke up to a start, and realized it was just a nightmare. As I got up from my bed, I noted the comfort of it, almost comparable to the bed I had back at Earth. I noticed that there was a stash, right at the front of my door.

As I went to pick it up, I noticed a letter. It read: "Thank you for patiently waiting for our work. We hope you enjoy it. We have designed to make it light for you, as we know that you are not the one for combat, thus making our estimated time, thankfully wrong.

I understood what he had meant. Instead of the estimated 3 days, they had somehow finished it within 12 hours or so. Apparently they weren't appointed the royal blacksmiths for nothing. I started to put the armor on, and to my surprise, it was quite easy to put on.

Fastening the straps according to the instructions written on the scroll, I looked at myself. I had a crest on my head resembling of a phoenix, and on the scroll, it said that this wasn't just for decoration. Special skill: Phoenix Crest: CD 2. If the user's HP is more than or equal to 1, the user will survive a lethal attack with 1 HP remaining.

Looking at the other pieces of armor, I had shoulder padding that were decorated with a spike on each padding, and fiery red armor that was coated around my body, giving off a slender and smooth form. My sides of my arms were protected, although all that protected the arm's parts that were facing my torso was just my usual long-sleeved black shirt.

My torso was protected immensely, my breastplate and stomach covered with thick yet light metal, as well as my back. My legs were covered with fiery, scaly armor, and my privates were given less attention, due to obvious reasons.

I looked at myself. "Hm...such a nice armor should be given a name. What should I call you?..." I thought to myself, wondering what I should call it. "Hm...alright then! Vulcanus!" I yelled, and to my surprise, the armor burst into flames.

I immediately started to panic, until I realized that there was no heat...wait..that explained it. I wasn't able to be harmed by fire in any way. That was why when I went to Muspell after that summoning ritual Loki performed, I found it strange that I wasn't feeling uncomfortable even when there were flames right besides me, possibly licking my skin.

I then read the scroll, "If one wishes the activate the flames, just simply give the armor a name, and say it to activate or deactivate the flames." I nodded. That sounded decent enough.

Heading to my bed, I pulled out one of the maps, and looked at our next target: the city of Leptir. It was known to house a legendary weapon of great power...and maybe like this I would be able to crush the fighting spirit of the people if Muspell took it, and used it for display.

I started to illustrate the plans, looking at the city of Leptir. Unlike Bolverk, Leptir had a much smaller radius, making hit-and-run strategies less viable, and thus, I decided not use such strategies.

Looking at the overall shape of the city, surrounded by a circular wall, I wondered whether if such a wall meant that it would be easier for archers to hit us. Bolverk had adopted more of a quadrilateral shape, which made it easy for us to conquer, as the troops would find it much harder conveying information to other sides of their own.

However...if they all had to convey their information...it would be to the center. The center of it would be the easiest, as all ways of the city would have to go to the center. If I took out the catalyst of the problem...I would remove the problem entirely.

I headed outside, to clear my head for a bit. I had used quite a few units to clear the grand hero battles, gaining Camus and Xander in the process. As I walked towards them, they both bowed. "It's good to see you, sir."

Rolling my eyes, I said nothing as I kept on walking. I didn't understand why they would still be so stubborn to call me "sir" when I had made it clear that it may be inappropriate to call me sir, as I was a few years their junior.

As I headed to the mailbox, I saw something interesting. "Oh?" I said, taking the contents of the mailbox. "Hm...we request you to write a song, for our first victory over Nifl. Alright, what the hell..." I held my head in my hands. I could write a song...but I still needed a tune. Maybe...something from my world.

I sighed, deciding to get on with the battle plans, then teach them the song. As I headed to the throne room, the herald yelled, "The Grand Summoner has arrived!" The doors burst open for me to walk through, and after I walked a few steps into the throne room, on the red rug, I bowed.

"O king, live forever! Where, pray tell, is my seat?" Surtr pointed to a seat besides Laegjarn. "Over there, Grand Summoner. I see that you've taken a liking to your armor. The blacksmiths must have done an excellent job, have they?"

I nodded, as my phoenix crest covered part of my face, and my summoner's cloak covered the rest in a silhouette. "Yes...they have. They even gave me the option of hiding my identity, which I find to be quite useful. Anyhow, shall we begin?"

Surtr began speaking. "Yesterday was our first victory over Nifl, accomplished within less than 3 hours. Yet I still hear feelings of distaste towards the tactician who was responsible for this. Why is this?!"

A nobleman stood up. "O king, live forever! While the Grand Summoner may have achieved our first victory, the fact that he claims to only be 16 years old, not to mention he never shows his face, is rather disturbing to both nobility and the public! Also, none of the public has ever seen him, and neither have we council of elders!"

He was speaking the truth. Only a select few individuals knew my true identity and face, and even then, they only saw it a few times. My name wasn't even known to them either, so he had a point. This was a bit unreasonable, and I had to do something about it.

Surtr growled at him. "Oh?...you dare to-" I stood up. "King Surtr, no need to be so angry. I will reveal myself and name to the public, though...my face will have to go under much consideration. Also...about the song request, I will do it."

As Surtr kept on rambling about state of affairs and shit like that, I looked at the deer that was delivered. "One more thing...I have a question to ask all of you." I took the deer, and brought it to Surtr. "This is a horse."

Surtr frowned. "Er...no. That's a deer." I gave Loki the play-along eyes, pleading for her to do it as well. She rose up, and said, "Gentlemen, I believe all of you are very smart individuals. Is this a horse or a deer?"

There were 20 in the council of officials, and 7 of them said horse, while 13 of them said deer. I nodded, and bowed to everybody. "I apologize for my sudden intrusion into such matters. While I get rid of this animal, please continue."

As the state of affairs kept going on, something that I had little to no interest in, I kept looking at the kingdom. Would it be mine? Maybe...maybe not. I was a tactician of war after all, I had no idea when death would catch on to my heels.

however, I also grinned as I thought of the ones who would oppose my dream, oppose my ideals. They all thought they would live to an old age...but not me. I never expected anything for myself, and that made it all more satisfying.

I began to write down the names of the thirteen who said deer in my notebook, secretly grinning while doing so. Boy, these thirteen were going to have a pretty funny surprise in the future...and by funny, I didn't mean the ha-ha type.

Skoll

Runei

Doka

Alfer

Daim

Durnr

Eitre

Dvalim

Brock

Gajar

Vetsri

Darisin

Rotr

Why did I do so? What did I mean by this? Well, as the descendant of tacticians and royal lineages long ago, I naturally was as ruthless as they were, and cunning as well.

I had now assumed a great seat of power in Muspell. Its king was no fool, but he was not smart either. This lead me much room to do what I wanted, to find out much about others.

If they did not learn to acknowledge me as a threat, then they would die. I now knew who would be a potential obstacle in my plans. I needed to get rid of any possible treasonous individuals, and this was the perfect time.

Those who said that it was a deer proved that they didn't see me as a threat, or looked down on me for being so "stupid," therefore had to be terminated, as such individuals would have no sense of loyalty towards me. The ones who said it was a horse...well, lucky them. Apparently they were smart enough to know that I meant business, even with such a matter like this.

It was the perfect method of finding out who could be an obstacle. Calling this deer a horse seemed like foolishness that nobody would follow, a silly little survey at best. But this could decide whether if one lived...or one died.

This was a ruthless move that I learnt from books, and from real life. This was what officials in real life would often do, but to a dumber extent. Saying that Islam is peaceful is as to saying that a deer is a horse.

The thing was, in order to be truly loyal, one must believe, to believe with one's whole heart and soul, in nonsense that you should believe is nonsense. Whether the driving force be fear, or sheer understanding of what would happen if they didn't believe, I now had them all under my grasp. No escape.

* * *

As I headed to the ruins, I fired more orbs into the air, as Blyn, Lukas, Maria, and Minerva watched. Out came a 4 Shigure, a 4 Odin, a 4Marth, a 5 Katarina, and a 4 Frederick.

Raising my eyebrows as the star of them all, Odin, walked out, I looked at the real prize, Katarina. "Eine..." I said, though I pronounced it like how an Asian might say it. While my English itself was perfect, I sometimes preferred to pronounce it incorrectly, as it sometimes sounded a lot cuter. So, instead, I pronounced the word Eine as Ai-ne.

She flinched a little, as that was how I often called her while I played New Mystery of the Emblem. "...H-how? How do y-you know my name...like that?" I giggled mentally. She was still cute like that. "Just wait. We have a lot to introduce you to."

Pointing at Odin, I motioned to the guards who had accompanied me, "Get this person in a jester's outfit! He's not the greatest fighter, but he's an exquisite entertainer!"

The two of them walked up to Odin. "Excuse me..how shall we refer to you?" Odin twirled around, and revealed two words on his tome. "My name is Odin Dark! Sorcerer of the Dark Dragon! Catalyst of your darkest nightmares! But...you can just call me-"

I walked down the stairs. "Owain, just go with them." the use of his true name immediately left him staring in shock. "But...but...how? How did you-" "Odin Dark, it's time to go." the two guards then led him to the castle, where he would be dressed in a clown's outfit, so he could entertain...some guests that I had in for the future.

Looking at Marth, I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. You're in good hands now, there are quite a few from Archanea. You'll find them later." Then, I headed to Cherche. "My, my. You're pretty damn strong. You'll be a wonderful addition to our army."

As I looked at them all, I bowed gracefully. "Welcome to Muspell, heroes. I and the Summoner of this world, and I have summoned you all to help us. We fight to achieve not just a better world, not to simply save our country, but to liberate and bring peace and glory to every realm. Will you join us?"

I myself preferred to convince them, instead of using the Briedabilik's power to twist their loyalty to me. While Briedabilik was useful, it was still only a weapon. And what was a weapon without its wielder? Nothing at all. The wielder himself or herself had to be strong as well.

I could hear murmurs, and a bit of discussion among the new batch of heroes. I then held out my hand towards them. "These people look up to you. You may not think of it, but in their hearts, each one of you is a great hero. Having you on our side...you all are symbols of hope and justice for them. Will you fight for those people?"

Katarina stepped up. "I-I'd like to volunteer, Summoner. How..how may I refer to you?" The others stepped up as well, apparently convinced by my ethos-based persuasion.

Removing my phoenix crest for them all to see, I said to them, "I am Kyren. You may refer to me as that in private...but please, do not refer to me as that in public. Just refer to me as..." they listened as I said the name, the alias that i would take. They nodded. "Very well...now, what do we have to do?"

Walking to the flame towers, i welcomed them there. "These are the training towers. Every few minutes, simulations of soldiers are automatically spawned by the magic existing here. Here, you may train."

A few hours later, as they trained themselves up to an acceptable level, around in the 30s, I called them all out. Every single hero that i had summoned stood in front of me.

Red units:

Raigh: Edgy Child

Katarina: Wayward One

Marth: Altean Prince

Xander: Paragon Idiot

Blue units:

Odin: Totally Not Owain

Lukas: Sharp Soldier

Shigure: Uplifting Artist

Camus: Cow Knight

Green:

Minerva: Red Dragoon

Frederick: Butler Perfectionist

Nino: Pious Mage

Colourless:

Blyn: Brave Lady

Takumi: Pinapple Prince

Matthew: Faithful Spy

Virion: Virgin Archer

Maria: Minerva's Sister

Pacing over to the group, I said, "Thank you for you all joining the Eternal Flames, all of you. I know that some of you may have gone on missions, some of you haven't. However...this is one mission that requires every single one of you to participate."

They all bent in closer, listening. "The plan is very simple, yet very hard to execute at the same time. First of all, we'll need Odin." Odin was now dressed in a jester's outfit, something which i thought to be quite fitting of him.

"We'll need you to impress them with some tricks of your own, Odin. I'm sure we'd all like to see some of your magical prowess." I said. I knew he was weak, but just because one was weak didn't mean he was useless. Instead, sometimes being weak was an advantage.

He started to recite some strange rituals, as a huge dark cloud came out...and he suddenly sang, "POP GOES THE DRAGON!" a draconic, yet silly-looking head popped out of the cloud, sending quite a few heroes down on the ground. I myself was slightly thrown off by the elaborateness of the trick, but I liked it. "Does anybody have any objections against him showing off?"

Before anybody could answer, Odin then started to shake, his left arm vibrating. "What is this...my magic hand is trembling! Tis trembling with sheer power, i cannot contain it! Oh, someone, please help me, before my bloodthirsty hand plunges deeeeep into someone..."

Minerva glared at Odin. "Get this fool out of my sight. I don't want to see all this nonsense." Odin gasped. "But milady, this is the art of the dark magic! Surely you wouldn't be so interested in the tale of the curse of Macedo-" he was cut short by Hautclere being thrown into his face.

I sighed. "Well...he is rather annoying. I suppose I'll revive him as late as possible."

* * *

I walked into the banquet room, looking at the 13 officials that I had invited in. "Thank you all for coming in here with me. I, Grand Summoner, have spent many pounds to set this up, so please enjoy."

They all looked at me a bit warily, as I still had not bothered to take off my cloak. I took it off, as my face was still concealed by my phoenix crest. "Why don't you eat? I feel a bit offended by the fact that I ordered the best chefs around to prepare all of you this, and you still don't trust me."

Looking at each other, they began to eat. I sat down at the far end of the table, where I could see them all. "So, would you all give me some introductions of yourselves? I would like to get to know you all, as I find it quite nice to have some friends of power.

One of them stood up. "My name is Dvalim, a chancellor of the estate of the land belonging to Muspell. It's a pleasure to meet you...who are you again?" he said, as the others laughed. "Yeah, who the heck is he?" "Man, so forgettable." "Why don't you show your face so maybe we'll remember you?"

Standing up, I removed my cloak, to reveal the phoenix crest that hid my face. "Will this suffice, gentlemen?" they looked at each other, and shrugged. "So, Grand Summoner, what have you brought us here for?"

Before i could say anything, Odin suddenly ran into the room just as I planned. "Fear not! I sense the curse of boredom on this room, and I, Odin Dark, shalt free you of this horrible, terrifying curse!"

Meanwhile, the musicians began to play yakety sax as odin yelled out curses, and other random bullshit as that. "Oh good sir, what is your name?" He said to one of the officials.

"My name is Daim. What brings you here? Will you stop all this nonsense?" Odin gasped. "Oh?! Someone who needs a bit of enlightening! I'll show you what I'm capable of!"

He pointed at two figures. "Warriors of evil! I shall show you my prowess in magic!" Everybody frowned as he pointed at the two figures, who happened to be training dummies, far from warriors of evil.

"Take this! I'm overdoing it-as usual!" a bunch of blades fell onto the dummies, and as the dust cleared, the dummies were still standing, with their usual grins still on their faces, almost as they were taunting him.

I raised an eyebrow, as he activated his special, Moonbow. "You can't hide from me, warriors of evil!" Some of the officials were starting to crack up due to the intense stupidity and ridiculousness of the situation.

I yelled at him, "Moonbow won't work! 0 resistance minus 30 percent of 0 is still zero!" Odin just kept on shouting as he kept trying to ineffectively destroy the dummies.

"The radiant hero speaks! BY MYSTLETAINN! Fine, fine, everything's fine!" I frowned, as he was stealing quotes from others, not that it mattered too much. "I'll do my best!"

The dummies were still standing, perpetually smirking at him. Eitre then used a fireball to burn the dummy up, and looked at Odin. "Your magic is rather pathetic." Odin shook his head, spinning around. "You have not seen my full potential yet! I am the descendant of a bloodline of Hero-kings, and also the descendant of a pink-haired pegasus knight!"

He paused for a second, flamboyantly covering part of his face. I kept on watching him, my eye occasionally darting to other places. He had an exemplary talent for drama, though his combat skills were rather horrible. Sometimes, even if one were not suited for combat, one could still be an useful asset.

"Allow me to sing a song for all of you!" Odin made the entire room shine with bright, harmless energy that resembled electricity, and out of nowhere, lightning resounded across the room, much like electric guitars.

"Whoa-oh-oh-oh-ah-ah-ah-aaaa-ha-ah-ah-ah! WHOA-OH-OH-OH-AH-AH-AH-AAAAA-HA-AH-AH-AH!" I grinned as he sang the song. It was something that I had taught him during training. While everyone else was busy honing their combat skills, I had given some tips for Odin.

"So, Summoner Kyren, you ask for me to step into the jaws of death, and give them a good old display of my power?" I nodded. "You may not be the strongest hero around, but I trust that you are the bravest amongst us all."

He bowed to me. "Thank you for such trust in me, Summoner! I will dedicate my tome and my skills to you! On another hand, would you mind giving me some advice?"

I nodded. "Alright. Music is always good. Like...does this fit you?" he scratched his head. "what are you talking about?" i cleared my throat. "Just wait a second." "Whoa whoa whoaaaaaaa..." I began singing the best part of Lost Horizon-The One.

After I was done, he laughed. "This is such an amazing song, Summoner! So powerful, no word could fit to describe it, nor would any word be fit to be put in as a lyric! Very well, I shall use this!"

I glanced at him, as he kept on singing and singing. As I ate my food, I noticed that he had been singing this for 5 minutes, and didn't know when to stop. As I waited for someone to stop him, Lord Brock slammed his table. "Jester! You either switch for a better song, or shut the fuck up!"

Odin nodded, and started to sing Jiyuu no Tsubasa, a german/japanese song. I had given the lyrics to him in what it sounded like in English. "Oh well my son is very hungry, did his best as a Korean! well my sempai fine help me seize the deed, kill them Hitlerans!"

While the lightning boomed around him, he had a laughing seizure. I clamped my head, forcing myself to not bang my head on the table. I knew this was a song that he would like, but he was ruining it.

"You won't take me to Korea! You turn on my dick! Send Kami while you gain this high five!..." I didn't pay attention to the embarrassing lyrics, and kept eating my food, and had a swig of Muspell's best wine. As soon as I tasted it, I swallowed it down bitterly. What the fuck was this shit?!

"So cool of my broom! You could be a cyclops!" I groaned, wondering why i didn't secretly bring earplugs. As he finished, the officers grabbed tomatoes, and started throwing the red squishy balls at him and the musicians. I followed suite as well, deciding to blend in.

As Odin whisked himself out, he yelled, "Hark! I have lifted the curse of boredom on you all, but I! Odin Dark, shall be back, to save you all from the dangers that may encounter you all again! Away, away!"

I went to the center of the room, and bowed to them all. "I apologize for the performance that this jester has made, as I invited him. I will take care of him personally." The officers shrugged.

"Meh, he's fine." "Better than you. Boring as shit." "Yeah, the tomatoes were the best, as with his stupid attitude." "Man, I would be more appreciative if you were like him." "Fuck, was he a peasant? We kick shit like that around all the time."

Oh...but the real fun's about to start. I thought as I walked back to my seat. "Anyway... if you all want me to brighten up the mood with some odd behavior of my own, I shall do it." I bit my lip, trying to buy more time. Odin had been rushed off prematurely, and I wasn't keen on discussing governmental things, because as far as I could find about them, the officials were simply representatives of the power they had in their hands, not individuals that really wielded the power.

"Yeah, sure." "Entertain us, bitch." "Dude, he's a boy." "Then he's still a bitch!" "How do you know it's a boy? Under that phoenix mask, could be the face of a girl! After all, look at that hair!" "Wait, it?" "Yeah, it." "Let's just call it it!"

Under my breath, I cursed at them silently. "媽的智障。。簡直就像一群豬。。幼稚的很。(fucking idiots...just like a herd of pigs, they're so immature.)"

Standing up on my spot, I said to them, "Anyway...why did I quit my job of crushing cans?" they didn't answer. "Because, it was soda pressing (so depressing)!" None of them laughed, and I knew i had to keep this up, no matter how lame they were. I had better jokes anyway, not that i wanted to share them.

"EVERY 60 SECONDS IN NIFL!" i yelled, trying my best to not surprise them. "A minute passes." they glared at me, obviously not taking the bait. It didn't matter. I just needed that one minute.

"When a woman said, 'I look fat. May you give me a compliment?" I waited for anybody to answer, not that I expected anyone to. "Her husband said, 'You have very keen eyesight.'"

Of course, nobody really laughed. "What's long, brown, and sticky?" someone groaned. "Fucking kill me already!" I replied, "A stick!"

There were grumbles and mumbles of distaste and disgust. "Goddamn, that was bad." "Fuck it, I preffered the jester." "Seriously, why is it even the Grand Summoner?"

I resisted my urge to attack them, bowing with grace. "Thank you for letting me entertain you all. It was nice knowing your...interests." More murmuring and complaints were heard. "Just so you know, you're not welcome." "Fuck, a waste of time. It better not invite us again!"

As I sat back down to eat, the clock rang nine times. Nine times...I realized that there was a reason why I said nine. Because, nine was the unlucky number...but not for me.

* * *

A flurry of owls burst into the room, and caught Gajar by his entire body. He let out a cry of terror as the red owls surrounded him, and disintergrated him into a bloody mess of what once was a humanoid.

I looked in the direction, and saw Katarina holding her hand out. "D-did I do a good job?" I immediately motioned for her to keep quiet, as I still had a cover that I shouldn't blow.

The heroes jumped down, breaking through the windows and landing on the floor. They were all dressed in golden and blue armor, and with blue jewels on their chests as well. Taken from the Nifl soldiers, they were now dressed as Nifl assassins.

I could barely resist giving a grin of satisfaction to my face. As long as I kept my guard up, I could pass off the blame. After all, there were magic recording devices that would be able to catch everything in the room.

Right next to me, an arrow buried itself right in Alfer's head, instantly killing the official. I reacted in surprise, instantly flinching. As the other officials drew their weapons to fight, the heroes attacked them as well, giving no quarter.

As Takumi landed in front of me, I immediately got a kitchen knife to attack him, as my strength stat was so low daggers were some of the only things I could wield without tiring out immediately.

I tightened my grasp around the weapon, and yelled, "Vulcanus!" My armor burst into flames, licking but not harming my skin. The power of a summoner of Muspell infused with me prevented such burn injuries, not that it protected me from any other types.

I attacked him, as he dodged two of my strikes, and then blocked the third one with his gauntlet. He raised his eyebrows, silently questioning me whether if the phoenix crest's charge had loaded up.

I put two fingers up to signify that there were two left remaining, and I attacked him twice, this time both of them striking true. He then drew his silver bow and yelled, "I'll shoot you down!"

As the arrow plunged deep into my chest, I closed my eyes, knowing that it should kill me. The phoenix crest shone with energy, supporting me with one last HP, though I lay on the ground as if I was dead, my eyes opened wide as if I had seen a ghost.

I could hear voices all around me, clamouring over the immediate danger. "Fuck! It's Nifl assassins!" "Man, stop talkin shit, we gotta survive this!" "Could it have ordered for our deaths?" "Naw, look at it! It's right over there, dead as a stone!" "Man, such a weakling. First to die."

Doka ran to the magic recording device, bow. "Please, help us! There are assassins arouind! Send help over here right now-" He stared in shock as Matthew threw a dagger into the magic recording device, and ran off into the shadows as Doka chased after him, hollering.

Before Doka could follow Matthew any further, Frederick ran to him, his gray armor now replaced with gold, with a golden helmet and visor covering his face. "For milady Fjorm!" he yelled, and smashed Doka into the ground, instantly turning him into a grease spot with his hammer.

Dvalim fought against Lukas, axe to lance. However, before he could land a serious blow with moonbow, Marth pushed Lukas out of the way, and jumped over the blow, twisting in the air to regain his footing. Noticing that his opponent was behind him, Marth shoved his sword backwards, impaling Dvalim in the wall.

As Dvalim stumbled back, bleeding profusely and coughing blood, Marth raised his silver sword. "My prayers are with you." with that, he detatched the official's head from his body, and ran towards his next opponent.

"Ahhhhhh!" Nino screamed as green blades fell onto Brock and Runei. The two officials growled, bleeding from the injuries the blades had cost them. Nino started to run, as Brock pounced on her. "A little lass over here? You fine lass, you shouldn't be doing such unsavory business, you should be-" he turned around, reacting to a scream that escaped from Runei's lips, while a harmonic lance tore through his spine.

Shigure flew off, with Brock close on his heels. From his harmonic lance still hung what was left of Runei, and he shook it, the remains dripping down. Brock knocked an arrow, pointing at him. "You won't get past me!" The arrow struck true, and my eyes widened as the pegasus reared in pain, and the poor beast flew through the window along with its rider, crashing into the volcano's ridge outside and faded away as they expired. I closed my eyes as I heard his last words. "The sky...so beautiful..."

I gritted my teeth, wanting to join the fight, but I knew better. While I could revive the heroes themselves, there was no guarntee whether if I could be revived myself, so I would opt to not try. Besides, my health was down to the very last drop, so it would not be a wise move to jump into the fray, even though I had a few stamina potions.

Meanwhile, Nino stood up, and summoned more green blades from thin air. "I won't lose! Not me!" she squealed angrily, as all of them slammed onto Brock, instantly killing him and leaving his bloody corpse on the floor.

Nino jumped up and down in her victory, and my eyes widened as I saw Rotr, with a sword and on his horse, charge towards her. I tried to tell her to watch out, but realized that with 7 of them still around, I had a decent chance of getting killed. So helplessly, I could only watch as he charged towards her...only to be taken out by a red wolf's head. Raigh behind him. "Watch out next time."

Nino nodded, and then ran along with the other heroes. 6 to go. As the six officials charged at the heroes, Brave Lyn shot an arrow, impaling Darisin right in the stomach. Somehow, Darisin found the strength to charge on, his silver sword flashing. I looked at him, almost wishing that he would survive. He was quite a gentleman, saying nothing or expressing disgust as the others ridiculed me. But...too late. Sometimes seeing too much, knowing too much, could be fatal.

Darisin swung his sword at Nino, this time catching her right in the blade. She started to fade as the slash drawn on her torso. "I'm...sorry..." Lukas swung his lance, immediately knocking Darisin into the wall and breaking his spine, killing him.

Eitre, Durnr, Daim, Skoll, and Vestri looked at each other. "They've hunted the others down...this is the last...if we're going to die...we're going to give them hell before we do! Fuck you all, Niflems!" The heroes glared at them, and the melee heroes jumped into the fray, blocking their assualt towards the ranged heroes.

Suddenly, from Skoll, glowed an ethereal light. My eyes widened as I realized what he was going to do. He was a mage...and as a mage, he was going to self-destruct, with magic. I didn't care about my condition anymore. Yelling, "Out of the way, now!" I ran out of the range of the blast, drinking up a stamina potion, restoring me to full health

As I looked at what the blast had left over, to no one's surprise, there were two people still standing, not counting myself. Katarina and Eitre glared at each other. I struggled to my feet. "Katarina..." Eitre charged at her with his sword, and swung at her head. Easily dodging the blow, Katarina kicked him in the chest, sending him down onto the ground.

As Katarina prepared to deal the killing blow, Eitre sliced the book out of her hands, along with her forearm as well. She gasped, clutching the stump as her blood dripped onto her golden armor. I reached for a weapon, finding a dagger in my hands.

Katarina kept dodging his strikes, as I crept towards him. I gripped onto it tightly, as she gave me a pleading look, begging me to not miss. I bit my lip, and jumped towards Eitre, catching him off guard. As I struggled with him, he elbowed me in the stomach, and knocked the air and my dagger out where they were supposed to be.

Catching him in a full nelson and wrapping my legs around him, I let a few words escape my mouth. "Now...Now!" She used her left hand to stab the official in the heart, ending the struggle between us two. He glared at me, his bloody mouth breathing a question out of it. "Who...are you?"

I replied, with the alias that I had told my heroes to refer to me while we were at the summoning ruins. "Jormugandr..." His eyes widened, then closed in death as I released him. As I stumbled to my feet, I glanced at Katarina's bleeding stump. I unscrewed the cork of a stamina potion, and then I said,"Tilt your head."

She did what I said, replying with, "A-alright!" and let me pour the liquid into her mouth, restoring her arm. I looked at what used to be of the other heroes, or rather, where they used to be. The explosion caused by Skoll had killed them all, and I needed to revive them once again.

Before I could load a potion into the Briedabilik and revive them all, I noticed some bloody footprints going out of the dining room. But before I could investigate where these footprints came from, I heard footsteps, probably of guards. As I was still covered in blood, i could fake the injuries. "Katarina, get out of here, now!"

I hissed, as she was still covered in Niflem armor. She nodded, and jumped out of the window, and ran across the volcanic rocks towards the training tower. The guards went in, horrified. "Oh my flame dragon...what happened here?" "Is there anyone still alive?"

I stood up, coughing. "Yeah..."I said, as I pulled up my cloak. They all bowed. "Grand Summoner...may you give us details of what happened?" I wheezed, and said to them, "Niflem assassins...they're all dead...caught us all by surprise...my pheonix crest saved me. I will thank the royal blacksmiths later for this. The rest...they're probably all dead."

I pulled the trigger of my Briedabilik, reviving my heroes with a loaded stamina potion, though only Brave Lyn appeared before me. "Alright, Lyn. I need you to follow these bloody footprints." I whispered as I got onto her horse. "Understood, Jormungandr." she said, as we rode towards the footprints.

At the end of the footprints, was Vestri. I examined his wounds, but realized that he wasn't wounded by any of the heroes. Sure, he was definitely harmed by the blast, but...shit, this wasn't good. Someone else killed him, with a staff. It definitely wasn't Maria, as she didn't even have enough SP for her offensive staff skill.

A hand appeard on my shoulder, as a familiar, seductive voice hovered near my ears. "I know what you did over there, you handsome scoundrel." I turned around to face Loki. It was no doubt that she had killed him. But she wasn't supposed to know...and I couldn't kill her here. Lyn drew her bow, but I stopped her. "Don't."

Loki giggled, as she walked down the hallway. I gritted my teeth. Now that she had a grasp of the information and situation...unless if I could bring her down under my control, she was a huge threat. I didn't know whose side was she on. But all I knew, was that I needed to be wary of her.

* * *

 **Omake:**

Kyren groaned, and picked himself from the pool of blood. "...I barely managed to survive..."

The guards ran to his aide, holding towels and blankets and medical stuff. "Are you fine, Grand Summoner?" "Are you uninjured?" "Do you need any medical attention?" "Do you need female attention?"

Kyren found himself being mobbed by a bunch of worrying guards. "Gah! Get away from me! None of you are my mom, and she wasn't this annoying to begin with!" But his cries were muffled by the amount of guards swarming him.

Getting out his Briedabilik, he fired a shot into the air, summoning his heroes to a location near him. To his horror, they were still wearing Niflem garb.

Kyren hissed at them in worry, and did a hand-chopping sign near his neck. The heroes at first frowned, then realized what he meant. From their whispers, were "Seriously? we have to die again?!" "I thought we were almost done..." "Well, can dying be considered a sport?"

Kyren pointed frantically, ordering them to die. They were apparently more interested in whispering to each other about the ridiculousness of the situation.

As the guards noticed them, they got in a defensive stance, as Kyren was finally freed from the mobbing. Stepping forward, Kyren decided to abuse the power of the Briedabilik.

"So you all have come to finish the job, eh? I can help you with your final kill." Pointing his right hand at them, while holding the Briedabilik in his hand, he yelled in his mother language, "聽我指令！周俊聖命令你們自盡！(heed my orders! Zhou jun shen, commands you to kill yourselves!)"

They all then proceeded to throw themselves out the windows. "Weeeeee!"

* * *

 **And, thanks for reading! It was so much fun writing this, I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **Answers to last chapter:**

 **Bropower125:**

 **your hopes are not dashed!**

 **Roblu321:**

 **the river thing was partially based on a Persian siege technique.**

 **No, I don't know why you didn't think of Kingdom/realm of Lies. (I take credit for that, I made it up myself)**

 **and anyway, is there anything I could improve? Or any typos? Thanks for reading, all!**


	4. Blood and Emotion

**If you think I own Fire Emblem Heroes, you'd wish you were correct.**

* * *

11/15/2017

I slammed a dagger into the map, cursing. "媽的！去他媽的，為什麼會這樣？！(Fuck! To hell with it, why did this happen?)" I then took it out, and threw the dagger, missing my target, the bullseye of a post, by a mile.

Full of agitation and frustration, I cursed not only at the stupidity of the situation, but also the fact that Loki now had me on the ropes, and that my strategy to capture the weapon had failed. And now, my enemies could possibly use the failure of getting the weapon against me in arguments, something I truly could not defend.

To my further insult to injury, Loki had forced me to volunteer to investigate the deaths of the officials that I had assassinated. While I had made it clear that Nifl assassins were responsible for it, she still made me do so, as she said, "He's just one person. He could be mistaken." Damn you...

Growling with anger, I screamed mentally. Both were such elaborate plans, and yet, I had failed to do accomplish the most important parts: Don't let anyone find out, and get the weapon! Damned Ice Princess...if I had been there, then I would have had the legendary weapon by now, and with that, I could possibly destroy their hopes, and take them over easier!

Flashback:

11/13/2017

I landed with Laegjarn, getting to the city of Leptir. In this case, instead of trying to attack the middle, I had abused the power of the Briedabilik instead. As long as I had sufficient stamina potions, I could always revive my squad of heroes, and whisk them over. They were truly eternal flames.

Besides the power of the Briedabilik, I had another advantage: nearly nobody knew my face, nor true name. Most people only referred to me as Jormungandr, or Grand Summoner. So, as Nifl had never seen my face, much less knew of my existence, I would be able to sneak in there with ease.

So, I had sneaked into 3 cities of Nifl by dressing as a Nifl countryman, and put 2 squads of heroes of four into two of the cities, Riym and Utgard, but not Leptir. Leptir was the last, and most important. And at my count, I would let them wreak havoc among the army headquarters of the Riym, and after they had escaped, or been neutralized, I would then let them wreak havoc in the military of Utgard.

As my heroes had no Muspellian armor, I instead let them wear armor of bright green for Riym, and armor of black for Utgard. This was a ploy to mess the enemy up, to make them think that they had 3 enemies, Muspell, an enemy of green, and an enemy of black.

Messing them up, I successfully took Leptir by surprise by first sneaking into Leptir, and then released all of the heroes within. As they made a mess out of the army, I then had Laegjarn pick me up, and take me up in the sky to give the order.

As the order was given, the armies of Muspell stormed into the city of Leptir, and began taking it over. As soon as Utgard and Riym sent soldiers to help out Nifl, troops from Muspell immediately set an ambush by my orders, taking them all out and taking the two other cities as well.

So why couldn't I get this weapon? While I was trying to get to the heroes, two Nifl soldiers jumped out right at me, their axes flashing. Luckily, Laevatein and another officer was nearby, and they took care of the soldiers before they could make any fatal injuries.

However, one of them attacked me, he injured my shoulder as I moved to the right to dodge his blow, giving me a few scrapes when he kicked me, and I was knocked into the wall. As soon as I crashed into the wall, I could hear a crack in my back, and I couldn't even move anymore.

It was obvious my spine was injured, but luckily, as I said earlier, he was taken care by Laevatein, and I was healed by Maria again. Standing up, my bones healed, I was then advised by Laevatein to go back to the camps, or else I may suffer worse. She didn't do anything wrong in that case, but the fact that I could have been there to prevent the escape of the ice princess and Leptir simply made me quite frustrated.

Damnit...I really needed to cool my head...so I slept for two days straight, not even realizing that I had slept for so long. When I woke up, my heroes were relieved to find that I had finally awakened.

I flashed back to reality. From this I had learnt, that while I was smart, not everything would ever go well as I planned. This was a given, this was something that I could never change. There would always be factors that I may not be able to predict.

However, I knew something else. Instead of blaming my troubles on the other factors, I should do something that would minimize the damage. I looked at the side of the room, where my treasury was located. I looked at myself. Recently, I had promoted myself to four stars...however, that was not enough. I was still a weakling, and daggers were often regarded as weaklings.

But...I still needed to defend myself. A silver dagger wouldn't work against much foes, as much to my surprise and anger at the same time, every time I unlocked my potential, my strength would actually go down. At first, at one star, my attack stat without weapons, as I looked in the mirror, was 19. Now, as a four-star, my strength stat was 17.

Well...I wasn't going to do any damage anytime. Heck, at this point I was dealing even more 0 damages than odin, which was a task till to this day, I had sworn that no man could ever do.

I flung my long hair out of my face, applying a few fluids to keep it in place. I stared out of the window, wondering how the kingdom down there was like. It certainly looked nice...and nobody knew my face...as long as I dressed in the right garb, I would be fine.

I headed to Laegjarn's room, and knocked on the door. "So...Laegjarn, do you have any garb that the normal people down there have? I would like to visit the city of Muspell."

Laegjarn put her finger on her lips. "Hm...I'm pretty sure that the headquarters of the spies have some. Are you going to bring any heroes?" I thought for a second, then nodded. "Yeah...I guess I'm going to take..." I looked at their hair. It definitely had to be something that was a bit crazy...

"Alright, then. I guess I'll take...Minerva, Takumi, Xander, and Camoo." I said. "Wait, Laegjarn...do you know the city very well?" Laegjarn shook her head. "However...I know someone who may know the city quite well..."

* * *

A bulky man, with brown skin, white and orange hair, dressed in a a cape and the lower part of a tunic, led us through the city. Now, I was dressed in garb that rather resembled medieval garb itself.

I had a tunic myself, with leather sleeves and boots to go, along with my usual phoenix crest, which to my surprise, was actually quite a popular headdress. Apparently the blacksmiths had a sense of fashion as well. Takumi, Xander, and Camoo were dressed similarly.

Laegjarn and Minerva on the other hand, were dressed in clothing that resembled what women wore during the Renaissance period, something that I found to be quite interesting and stylish on the same time.

I could see that Laegjarn was used to wearing dresses and royal affairs and such things like that. Minerva on the other hand...was not. Apparently these six years fighting against Archanea for her sister had robbed her any chances of learning how to even walk in such a simple dress like this, as she kept tripping.

"Gr...this blasted dress...and these high heels..." Our guide, known as Helbindi, said to her, "Well...we could always get you some boots." he said, as he went to the store and bought some of them.

I wondered who he was...he looked rather familiar. Well, I didn't want to ask him, as he wasn't exactly supposed to know that I was the Grand Summoner himself, and I wasn't going to let a simple stroll expose my identity.

Suddenly, I heard something, from Lukas. "Jormugandr..." I could hear his thoughts from the Briedabilik, wondering what he was trying to convey to me. "What is it, Lukas?"

"Jormugandr, we found a few individuals in your room. They snuck in with warp magic and had poison on them...obviously individuals who were trying to kill you." I replied, "Alright, who are they? What did they say? How many are there?"

Lukas replied, "There were three of them, and...they said nothing. As soon as Nino, Virion, Marth, and I defeated those three, they immediately killed themselves with the poison on them."

I growled, "So...what other information?" "We don't know, but there may be others out there...it seems that the poison wasn't for you. It was for themselves, as they had weapons on them...so there's someone behind this. Marth believes that there will be more who'll come for you, Jormungandr. Be careful."

I nodded, and kept on walking. As we got to a large building, I wondered what that was. "Laegjarn...what is that?" She looked at me, and said, "Oh, that's a shopping centre. It's just a large building where many people sell stuff or eat. We also have an arena over there, where people gamble on two fighters, and the winner gets reward money. However, it costs money to watch."

I thought about it. Well...with Xander, Camus, Takumi, and Minerva...maybe we could get some money for the Eternal Flames' funding. But then..all they had now were just silver weapons, so it may be a bit harder...

Meh, it didn't matter too much. I could go there later. After all, our last victory over these three cities had led more recruits to join my party, thus increasing our funds, even though I hadn't gotten that Legendary weapon. I tightened my fist in anger. The thought of not capturing that weapon just irked me beyond imagination.

Helbindi motioned towards the doors. "Shall we go here?" I thought about it. Muspell was quite like my own world, just a with a bit more fiery elements. While there were no cars, there surely were roads for the steeds, and even what I might consider a highway, though most of what we called technology was replaced by magic.

Nodding, I prepared to go in, until I heard a sudden crack...a crack of bones followed by blood spurting. Looking behind me, I saw Xander's mortified, pained face, several arrows sticking out of his body.

"Jormungandr...hurry...run..." People were screaming around me, as I noticed the one who shot it. There were four men, all of them wearing phoenix crests, and all of them were holding bows. Yeah, they must have been the ones who tried to kill me, but killed Xander instead.

I grimaced. While normally, I would expect my own soldiers to kill them with ease, that would only cause more chaos amongst the screaming populace. And at this time, I hadn't brought Briedabilik, because if I summoned my own heroes, I would easily be spotted, and my identity would be easier to find out, not to mention that my phoenix crest was a lifesaver that could potentially sell me out.

Helbindi whipped out his axe, preparing to attack and kill them, but I put a hand on his shoulder. "Stop. This will only generate more chaos." Laegjarn looked at me. "Then what do we do?" I looked at the side. "We have to run."

Ducking as two arrows flew over my head, I raced towards the roads, hoping that I wouldn't be hit by any horses or pegasi while running over. My companions followed me, running as fast as they could.

I crossed the road, and so did my companions, looking at the best way to go. Helbindi pointed at some horses at the side of the street we were on. "Let's use these. I think we have enough gold for them."

Racing over, Helbindi put 4 gold coins into the stand, unlocking a part of the magical barrier that kept 4 of the horses in place. Jumping in with Camus, I held on tight to him. "You're good with horses, right?" He nodded. "Right now, I think the best way to do this is to get you far away from them as possible."

Nodding, I used my legs to cling onto the horse's side, as the beast began to speed onto the highway. I noticed that our pursuers behind us were also following at high speed.

Firing arrows at us, I turned back, and realized that all of them were using bows. Damn...we weren't in a good position, as we were all using melee weapons, aside from Takumi, who was having a bit of trouble with the horse.

I surveyed the city before us, realizing what I could do. There were twists and turns down in the urban areas, so that meant I could shake them off, as long as Camus and I were at the front, and the ones behind us blocked their line of sight.

"Alright, Camus. We're heading off this road." he nodded, and steadied the horse to run off the slope of the highway, and turned to the left, bypassing the magic fires that controlled the flow of the traffic.

As soon as I saw an alley, I signaled the ones behind me to turn to the alley, to shake our pursuers off and possibly kill them. We kept on riding forward, turning on the next alley, as the ones behind us went for the first one.

Stopping the horse, both of us got down, relaxing. I put a hand on Camus's shoulder. "Thank you...you really saved my life back there." He wiped his face with his handkerchief. "It's really no problem. I've been through worse."he said.

I relaxed behind myself. "Well...it's actually quite nice seeing all of you do so much for me...I'm actually quite grateful." Camus looked at me. "Oh? It is just our duties. You need not to fret so much."

I laughed a bit. "Duty...and loyalty...are things that barely exist in my world. I wish it wasn't..but in the end, it is just an illusion." I looked at him. "I'm not used to people doing so much for me, Camus."

"How so, Jormungandr?" he asked, using the alias that I had picked for myself. I replied, "Well...often, position is defined by money. And greed often fuels it. So, I would say...that much of the 'loyalty' usually isn't for another person, it's for money. There are exceptions, but not many."

Camus polished his silver spear, and asked me, "What kind of person were you back in your world? What position were you, Jormungandr?" I smiled a bit bitterly. "I'm nowhere a knight, or anyone important. Consider me as the lowest of could be considered as nobility, a hair above what equals peasants."

This caught his attention a bit. "So...your reason for desiring to change the universe...is because you know the pain of these people?" I shook my head. "It has nothing to do with my position, or rather, my former position. Many of the ones in charge...lie to us. I want to create a world without slandering, without lies, without killing...but there must be someone who must take control, with no barriers."

He looked at me. "Who is your greatest enemy?" I shrugged. "My enemy cannot be described as a who. My enemy...is more of the foundations of ideologies...that I must destroy. It is like your faith to your motherland...but in a negative way."

Nodding sadly, he said, "It is something that they will never back down no matter what." I sighed. "Some of them think they deserve to be special...when no one is. Some claim that they are fighting hatred, when all they're doing is just hating on their so-called opponents. I cannot fix this. I must destroy it...and rebuild it."

I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You do know that my ultimate goal is to achieve peace...a world that nobody can ever harm, right?" He merely replied with a "yes." I continued on, "You are all technically bound by the power of the Briedabilik...to trust me...but I wish that my relationship with you all could be more than just this."

Removing my phoenix crest, I stared him in the eyes, pleading to him silently. "Will you be at my side to support me, even if the power of the Briedabilik is broken?" He nodded, gripping my hand. "Yes, milord and my friend. You have a noble cause, and I shall support you to the very end, follow you to hell. I swear on the name of Naga and Duma, and I hope the others can do so as well."

I thought about it. "Keeping it going on forever will be the hardest part...but I'm sure I will succeed." he looked at me, frowning. "But no one has ever done it before-" I stopped him. "I know that nobody has ever done it before. But just because nobody has ever done it before, doesn't mean it can't be done."

He lay back, relaxing a bit. "So...what do you want to do when all this is over, Camus?" I asked. He brushed his hair out of his face. "You...know my future, correct?" I nodded, knowing that he was either the Camus who was set to fight Marth, or the Camus who had just recovered his memory.

Drinking a cup of water from his pouch, he sighed. "I just want to be with her...be with her forever, till the end of our days. I may have loved another in the past...but that person is already married to another."

Grinding his water down, he sighed. "She plans on taking care of the orphanage for the rest of the days with the church. If she wishes to do that...then I will assist her in doing so, protecting and caring for the weak."

I glanced at him. "So...you wish to care for the orphans for the rest of your life, protect those who cannot protect others?" Camus coughed into his glove. "While a true knight must have loyalty...he must also have a kind heart as well."

Though I didn't exactly agree with him, I still respected his view on how he should live, as it was a morally good one. "After all this fighting...after I have led you all to create the perfect universe for everyone...I just wish to sit down, and stare into the beautiful night, watching the stars and enjoying all the hard work that we will have all achieved..."

I stared at the sky, imagining a future me doing so. I would finally achieve true peace at that point. "And...I wish that the friends who fought along with me could be at my side...to enjoy this moment."

He wiped his hair out of his face, as it drooped before him. "I find it interesting...despite the fact that you'd be willing to order multiple individuals to die without even blinking, you also value human life a lot."

I wiped my lips, getting rid of some of the grime. "I suppose...yes. Human life isn't something that I would willingly tamper with. But sometimes to save many...others have to die."

"You seem to be rather angry at the situation with your society...or even maybe, hate it." "It's because-"

He looked at me. "But first, we have to take care of this problem. Get down!" he yelled, as he pulled me down, an arrow right above where my head once was. I shuddered at the sudden attack, obviously not expecting something like this to happen.

I realized that they hadn't fallen for it...or rather, they may have been far too stupid to have fallen for it, missing them out entirely. In any way, they hadn't fallen for it. Camus stood up, getting on the horse as I pulled out my silver dagger. "I'll take care of this." he said, and rode towards him, leaving me behind.

Blocking an arrow with his silver lance, and knocking down another, he advanced slowly towards the 4 archers, as they kept firing at him. I gritted my teeth. He was getting closer and closer...maybe he could win this! But also, as the closer he got, it would be harder to dodge or block the arrows...and he had no intention of dodging, in fear of an arrow hitting me.

He twirled his lance, whacking two arrows out of the air, and caught another with his bare hands. However, one of them didn't aim at him. He aimed for me instead...the smart thing to do, as while I had no Briedabilik, I could still revive Camus if I survived, though there was no guarantee that I would survive if I was the one who lost his life.

He realized that he was going to aim at me, and finding no other options, he urged the horse to move in the way, the arrows striking his shoulder. Grimacing in pain, he yelled, renewing his efforts. I yelled at him, "Camus! Get out of here now! They may spare me!" I yelled, not wanting to see him suffer so much. Usually it was a quick and easy death, which I could handle, but such suffering was hard even for a ruthless person like me to take in.

He yelled back, "Jormungandr, a knight has his duty! I swore to follow you to hell, and to hell I will go if needed!" I yelled at him, "别了！（stop it!), Camus! This is an order! I command you to get out of here quickly!"

"No, Jormugandr! That is an order that I cannot follow, and will not follow!" I protested, "Camus! Don't worry, I'll be fine! Your constant suffering isn't worth my life!"

He then turned and looked at me, an arrow bursting out of his stomach, as the horse reared. "Jormugandr..." he heaved, as he set himself down, only to get pelted with more arrows. "Have you forgotten your position? Have you forgotten your aspirations? You told me...you told me you wanted to lead us to create a new and better place..."

I held my hands to my mouth as tears streamed down my cheeks. People dying in a war was almost normal, but this man needlessly suffering for my sake was nigh-unbearable. He continued speaking as he blocked an arrow, and tried to kill one of the archers, only for the man to pull out an axe and lash back at him, forcing him to keep his distance.

"My life isn't important...compared to yours...you must lead us, Jormugandr. A strong leader must sacrifice his men at times..." I cursed, desperately screaming at him to just break through, and leave me be instead of having to defend himself and me from the barrage of arrows. If he had Gravidus...if I had Briedabilik...this wouldn't be happening at all.

The horse reared, and Camus jumped off, trying to reach his opponents. As he finally reached them, he stopped. I looked at him and the archers, wondering what had happened.

One of the archers took out his axe once more, and swung it, beheading the knight who had struggled to defend me. Kicking his body to the ground, I could see that it had been fully riddled with arrows, blood pouring onto his clothes. As the dead body faded, I grabbed my dagger.

I knew that the chances of me surviving were close to zero, as even Camus himself wasn't able to do so. But...I had to try. Brandishing the silver dagger, I charged at them, knowing that they had little to no arrows left.

The man that I charged didn't even bother to use his weapon. He kicked me, sending me skidding into the wall, with a heavy grunt. I groaned, and felt something liquid at the back of my head. Blood.

I realized that they knew I was no match for them. No matter what we did, humans could not even begin to match Muspellans in terms of physical strength. As he notched his bow, a figure rained down from the sky.

Right in front of me, was a figure in long robes. Surtr, the flame king himself. The assassins looked at him in surprise and horror. Evidently they hadn't expected the king of Muspell himself to interfere, nor had I.

They used up their last arrows, in a futile attempt to save themselves. While the arrows did deal damage, his B skill-Renewal, healed his wounds faster than they could make them...imagine how little bullets could affect him...and he wasn't even wearing any armor.

He held out his axe/scythe, Sinmara, and brought it down, instantly killing three of them, as their stumps of their necks exploded with blood, red liquid painting the walls.

The last one tried to run, but Surtr grabbed him by his head. "I know, I know. You're correct. I already know." With a swing of his axe, he executed the last one, and walked over to me.

Holding his hand out, he motioned for me to take it. Slightly surprised by his...friendliness, I took it, and got up with the support from it. I asked him, "So...how did you find out I was here?"

He looked at his wrist, and pointed at the sky, as a gigantic wyvern flew down, landing beside him. "Your heroes warned me of possible impending danger that may happen to you." he said, his deep, rich, voice resonating along the walls.

"I haven't fought for days, so I decided to go out and find you, and I found you over here." he said, putting a spyglass back into his belt. I understood how he had done it by now. As he held out his hand again, to help me onto the gigantic wyvern, I took it, standing on the neck of the beast.

"Thank you, King Surtr." I wondered why he would do this, as I had the impression that he didn't care too much about me, and had no qualms about having my head on a platter. Or maybe I was wrong.

As we flew back to his balcony, Surtr rumbled with laughter. "You're quite amazing, Jormungandr." I raised my eyebrows, surprised by his comment. "Oh?" he looked at my eyes, and I realized that the tears hadn't exactly dried.

He didn't mock me about it, instead, he patted my back in an attempt to comfort me. "It must have been one of your heroes, correct?" I sighed. "Yeah...Camus...he was suffering so horribly for me. Usually when people die in an instant, I'm almost numb to the feeling of it, but when someone I know decently well is just suffering for my sake...it's different."

He gave me his handkerchief, as I wiped my face with it. "I understand what you mean, Jormungandr. You may be very smart, smarter than us all, but you're no doubt still young."

I was a slight bit offended by this comment, but I decided to slide along. "What do you mean by that?" "This isn't something that you should be seeing. My daughters only joined because they wanted to, and I saw that they had the heart to withstand the deaths of others. You seem willing to achieve your goal...but your morale acts as a restraint."

I stood up, and bowed. "My apologies for being so wea-" "Weak? Nay. This is a strength. A strong commander understands the needs of the people. I wasn't worried at all when I told you I would have your head on a platter if you failed."

"Oh?" I said, slightly surprised by this. "Because if you were able to convince my daughters, then there's no reason for me to not be convinced, as I know I am not as bright as they are. I have complete faith that you will succeed."

Frowning at this, I wondered why. Nobody trusted me in my world, due to my unpopular acceptance of certain facts, and many factors that would lead to continuous failure. So...why?

"But why, Surtr? If...I were to tell you about my past, would you still keep me?" Surtr gave me a kind look...something unexpected of the flame king himself.

"Jormugandr...or should I say, Kyren, what that happened in your world shouldn't matter here. What that matters is the effect that you've had on us. You've given us morale to keep fighting on, and decimated the ones who tried to stop this."

I was a bit relaxed to hear this, until I heard the last part. "Wait...so you know?" I gritted my teeth. This was something that I couldn't get out of easily..at least not unscathed. He noticed me tensing up, and patted me on the back.

"It's fine, it's fine. You have only shown me how initiative and cunning you are. In fact...as you put yourself in the massacre, making it look like you only survived due to your magical crest, just only shows you how much more smart you are. Well...I suppose that these officials would be the most likely ones to oppose you. They have opposed many of my decisions, but I could never bring myself to kill them, as I feared the chaos that may happen if a king was found killing his own subjects."

I looked at him, slightly disbelieving of the fact that I was this lucky. "So...I'm not screwed then?" He laughed. "Hell no! In fact, I'm quite impressed you managed and had the heart to pull that off. If Loki hadn't told me, then I would probably still think that Nifl assassins had killed them...not that I cared too much."

Laughing a bit, I then remembered Loki. I had to bring her under my control, somehow...though with me being in the favor of the king, this would be much easier...though she still had the people as a last resort. But first I had to finish this chat with the king. "I see...anything else I may help you?"

He gave me a humored look. "Kyren, you really make me wish you were my son. You have virtue, intellect, and willpower." I wasn't so sure. After my actions and dirty tactics, I looked at myself as this ruthless warlord, determined to reach his goal for a good cause. It wasn't the morally best way, but it definitely was effective.

I chuckled a bit bitterly. "I am not worthy of this sort of praise, sire." He glanced at me, his eyes wondering. "How so?" I put my hands on my heart, sighing heavily. "I am despised back in my world for being a failure at everything, and a hater, a bigot...things that by now, I've grown numb to."

He frowned a bit. "How so?" I sighed. Besides Kiran, there were little to none who ever listened to me, appreciated my effort. All that meant to them were themselves, and their own benefits...and I wasn't a factor of a benefit.

10/12/16 Kyren, age 16

 _I went to the results, wondering how did the state province speech contests go. It was quite easy for me, and quite a number of students had came to me, asking which city, which school I came from, which after school I came from, which I never took in the first place._

 _Noticing that my results weren't on there yet, I decided to check my younger brother's. While he was younger than me, he was also quite brilliant. In fact, many of the parents' of the kids had asked him where he came from, which school he came from, more than I did._

 _He was truly out of the other kids' league, I had to admit. Well, partially because we were now in a country in which most of the population didn't have English at its first language, but from what I knew, the contestants had spent weeks preparing for such a speech._

 _And they were all utterly outclassed by my brother. While he did have an innate advantage, he also had his own brilliance and voice to bring it out. "Roaring with passion, he called out to them, 'Must we all stay like this? Must we all cower in our dens, until the grave eventually captures us in its eternal jaws of death? Nay!' Turning around, he gave them a stern yet powerful look..."_

 _Those were his words, utterly placing himself in a new league, and I was lucky to see it. But as soon as I reached the results of his division, I could barely register the fact that he wasn't on the top...and that someone else in his division had somehow gotten in. The kid who had gotten in wasn't even that good compared to some of the other kids!_

 _A parent went up to me. "額？等一下， 你就是那位在第二部隊把整個房間給弄得很驚訝的那個的哥哥？（wait, are you the brother of the kid who rocked the second division?)" I nodded. "是的。請問你有什麼事想跟我說嗎？(I am. Is there anything you would like to say to me?)"_

 _"那兒。。第二部度。。是他嗎？(there...second division, middle school...is that him?)" she pointed a name. It was someone called wang-wei-ren. I shook my head... "不。。他是叫周念真。（no, his name is Zhou-nian-zhen.)"_

 _His name wasn't on there. Another contestant passed by, and noticed me. Walking over, she then asked me in English, "Did you get to there?" I shrugged. "They hadn't released it yet. If you're really interested, just try to find the name 周君聖 on the high school divisions winners list."_

 _I wondered why he wasn't put in. It was clear that nobody could go above him...yet someone from his division got into the top. Wait...of course it wasn't based on skill. We had never attended any afterschool curriculum..._

 _If I remembered correctly, some of the afterschools would help fund this programme, and let it run. Of course...that required a favor...as the programme would be on a national scale in China, it would be no doubt that the after schools who helped fund the most on this would be inclined to benefit the most as well._

 _So it really didn't matter...on his skill at all. It was just because of the fact that he hadn't gone to an after school, so he technically wasn't "sponsored." I then realized that my chances were pretty much lost to the wind as well, as I hadn't attended an after school for this either._

 _Rolling my eyes, I didn't even bother to stay for a few more minutes to see the results being posted. I knew what it would look like online, so I headed to my car, and waited for my brother to head over._

 _"所以，成績怎麼樣？（so, how are the scores)" I chuckled a little. "唉，像我們不用去上那些垃圾補習班的人， 更本沒機會。(well, people like us who don't need to go to these trashy afterschools don't stand a chance.)" "什麼意思啊，凱？（What do you mean, Ky?)" he said, using my nickname._

 _I turned around to look at him, as I stopped the car from moving. "不好意思。我們兩人都沒入取，但是是有人家在後面很明顯的搞鬼。那時候，再怎麼好也沒辦法。（Sorry. None of us made it...though there was obviously some foul play on it. It's not like any of us can help it.)"_

 _He sighed. "It's rather like your argument about whether Islam was a peaceful religion or not..." I nodded while as I drove forwards, readying myself for the 1 hour ride home. "I can't believe that they called me racist...that was the dumbest thing ever. But the most outrageous thing was that I was actually winning...and changing some peoples' minds...and I removed from that club for 'political correctness' and shit."_

 _I asked him, "What do you hate most about this situation?" he replied sleepily, drinking a bottle of juice, "Probably the lie that it itself is a peaceful religion...there are moderate muslims alright, and yes, not all of them are terrorists, but since the Quran defines these people as hypocrites who deserve to burn in hell...this is still a lie that millions of people still believe. What bout you?"_

 _Gritting my teeth, the thought of it made me growl in anger. "Sharia law. A political ideology...so violent and unfair...that shouldn't have existed in the first place." I paused for a second, and said, "Let's not talk about this...the thought of both humans being tortured and shady favouritism may shake my focus on the wheel."_

 _I was met with snoring...and a call from my mother. I realized what it meant, and I bit my lip, expecting the worst. This wasn't the first time._

Back to 11/15/2017, age 17

He nodded as I explained the complicated situation of my past life to him...that I would face once more in the future. "Well...what a paradox." was all he could say before he continued on. "So...I understand why you're so appreciative of this place."

"I hated my previous life, yes." I thought about my family...I disliked them. Why did I?...would they support what I wanted to do in life? No...not that they had a reason to, nor was that the reason I disliked them. I disliked them due to their passiveness...the lack of ability to think for themselves in important matters...aside from my brother, that is.

But I didn't know if I could see him again, nor did I know if I could see Kiran again. I wanted to, but if something happened...I didn't know. No...I swore to myself. I would see them again.

"Surtr...I appreciate the praise and favor that you give me, even though I don't exactly deserve it." I looked at him. "I came to you as nothing, Surtr. I was just a young man who happened to be quick-witted when I first came to Muspell. But...thanks to you, even if it was indirect...I have came to accept my position. When I first started, I was filled with much passion and zeal. But as it kept on going, I was filled with doubt and worry. But now...I have a clear mindset in front of me."

I bowed to him. "Thank you, King Surtr. May you live forever." He gave a deep rumble, of both humor and slight annoyance. "Oh please, you flatter me." standing up and towering above me, he got onto his gigantic wyvern, as it started to carry him to the throne room. "I shall be going. We'll hear these plans tomorrow, Kyren! Keep up the good work!"

* * *

As I returned to my room, I noticed Briedabilik...still on the table. Loading it with a stamina potion, I pulled the trigger, reviving Camus and Xander. As soon as they revived, they stared at themselves. "Hm...the arrows are gone." "How amusing..."

I hugged them both. "Thanks for saving me back there." I mumbled, as they were taken aback. Xander frowned a bit, then realized what I was talking about. "Ah...it was no problem, Jormungandr. Now if you'll excuse me...why are you focusing more on Camus?"

Camus glanced at him. "I believe he owes more of his survival to me, Xander." Xander gave him a stern look. "Oh? Are you comparing you sorry excuse of a knight to me, Camus?" I sighed. "C'mon...you two don't have much in common. Some details, yes, but mostly no."

Xander nodded. "True...as I use the fine blade, while he uses the less exquisite lance." Camus countered, "And that I have a far more attractive face and sense of style." "Pardon me? I believe, that I myself have a far better bloodline." "But it is quite a waste when the begetter of your bloodline happens to be a obese old geezer."

I pushed them out of the room. "At first...I was going to have some meaningful words with you guys...but you know what? Never mind!" With that, I closed the doors behind me.

* * *

 **Omake:**

"Wow, Surtr. You're actually a good guy." Kyren said, as he leaned on a chair, while the gigantic man chuckled a bit.

"I always have been. It's just...my appearance tends to undermine it." he removed his crown.

Kyren looked at it. "Removing your crown...hey, are you Nintendo's version of Thanos?"

Surtr frowned. "...no...what are you talking about?"

Kyren sighed. "Crap, I broke the fourth wall. (2)Oh no, I did it again. (3)Hm...I wonder what little girl should Thanos sacrifice-oh crap! that's not supposed to happen now, because that has to happen in 2018 and not 2017, and players don't even exactly know we exist, because we're only in early November, and we aren't even nearing April!(4)"

He then realized what he had done. "...well, four forth wall breaks, so does this count as a 16th wall break?"

* * *

 **And, thanks for reading! It was so much fun writing this, I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **Look, I know that I need address the situation of Kyren disliking Islam, otherwise I'm probably gonna get some reviews bashing me (and after I explain it, I probably will still get reviews bashing me). He has a reason for it, and I have already made it clear in the last chapter that Kyren wants to take over Earth because he hates the messed up situation it is in.**

 **And also, just because one may label Kyren as a "bigot" or "hater" doesn't mean I am. I'm just simply writing out a big reason out of the many reasons he has to hate the world as it is now. If you don't like his character, I'm sorry, but since he's on the side of Muspell, was he ever meant to be a hero?**


	5. Loss

11/17/17

I walked into the throne room, in my battle armor and white cape. As usual, my phoenix crest encased my face, and a silver dagger was hidden in a sheath under my sleeves.

Oftentimes after my studies, instead of hanging out with others, I would often head to Muspell, to discuss battle plans and other related stuff. It was a bit hard keeping my college years and my time in Muspell intact, but still manageable.

Thankfully, today was Friday, and after my classes, most of the students would go party or study together. Maybe even take drugs or something, but the point was, I had a lot more to do than that.

It would often go like this: During my free time, I would head to Muspell to check on everyone, and thankfully at the beginning on the school year I had scheduled my classes to give me a lot more time during the afternoon, as I originally had planned to use most of the afternoon for playing basketball or studying, as it was the time of the day where I would be most active.

But now...waging and winning wars were far more interesting than athletics. It was definitely fun to play against different people, but it was also fun to explore different worlds...and conquer them.

Sitting down at my seat, I looked at the 13 empty seats...a thing that was both beautiful and awful to see. It reminded me that I was a killer, but also reminded me that sometimes, killing was necessary to continue reshaping the world.

"And now, Kyren shall reveal to us his plans, to attack the capital of Nifl. Are there any questions regarding this matter?" Surtr's voice boomed across the throne room, as I smirked a little at Loki.

She batted her eyelashes, and I gave her a dirty look. That woman...how did she even get here? Was it just because of her sex appeal alongside battling capabilities that she got into such a high position?

Deciding not to think such things and focus on the situation, I noticed that no one said anything. Good. As long as there was no opposition, then I would have no deterrent to my plans.

"Anyway, I have a proposition." I said, as I stood up, showing a map, of Nifl. I had already taken all of the cities besides the capital, and taking over the capital, would mean that Nifl would be the first realm to be taken over by me.

"As we have very skilled and effective miners, I will use this to our own advantage." I said. Pausing for a second, I continued. "We will dig multiple tunnels that lead to the city."

I pointed at the diagrams of the tunnels, showing that most of them would move all the way to the parts between the walls and the cities, a prediction based on the design of the previous Nifl cities that I had conquered.

However, there were 5 tunnels that would lead to two special places. One of them was in the center, and another was at west's tip, east's tip, north's tip, and the south's tip. The palace and military HQ would probably be in any of these places, and they would be least be expecting an attack on their own base from the inside.

"And with this, we will surround the city, and after declaring that the HQ and the palace have been taken over, we will then take over the capital of Nifl...and then with that, we will have added another realm to our vision."

* * *

This is what I thought what would happen, my plans working perfectly as always. "Alright...how close are we?" I asked Helbindi. "Hrmmm...we're almost there, milord. When we arrive, they will open the caps and let the soldiers run out."

A blast of cold air went into the tunnels. "It appears that we have done it right now, milord." I rubbed my palms, feeling the satisfaction of cold air.

"Well done. As usual, if you die, I will pay your families triple what you were promised." the soldiers of the eternal flames saluted. "Yes, milord!" I looked at them rushing through the tunnels, and I walked in the opposite direction.

It was done. Now, I had to head to the HQ tunnel, after I arrived back at the root of all the tunnels. "Alright...get me to their palace." I said to Camus, and he nodded as I jumped upon his horse, and rode towards the HQ.

As we reached the end of the tunnel, I got off. "Royalty of Nifl...please surrender. As we have proved from the annexation of your cities, we will not harm your people."

"..."

* * *

11/18/17

I got up from my bed, getting up early. It was the time for the conquest of Nifl's capital. I went to the newest batch of heroes who had reached level 40, and started to congratulate them.

"Congratulations! A few days ago, when you first joined us, you came to us as failures and degenerates! And now, after days of vigorous training and 39 more levels, you all are still failures and degenerates!"

The heroes looked at me, frowning in confusion. I chuckled a bit. "I'm just teasing you all. You did very well." Laegjarn headed to me. "Jormungandr, the feathers and the badges?"

I nodded, remembering my promise to her to unlock her potential next. "Sorry for my forgetfulness, Princess. I shall do so right away, just head to my office." In my room was a gigantic stash of orbs and feathers, as well as refining stones and gold from arenas.

As I took twenty great badges, I randomly took an armful of hero feathers, not bothering to care about the actual amount. I had not the patience nor the time to count twenty thousand feathers, after all.

"Alright...now let me chant the ritual. However, you must first sit on the pile of feathers and badges." Laegjarn nodded, and sat on the pile of feathers and badges. I took Briedabilik, this useless wreck of a gun, and pointed it at the feathers.

"Oh Naga, please hear my prayers. I offer this small offering of feathers and badges to have this hero rise above what she can currently do now, to reshape her life, to give her the power she needs to rend the heavens and gift justice upon the people."

Briedabilik shone with energy, as twenty thousand feathers flew into the air, and the twenty great badges did as well. The feathers started to merge with her body, as well as the badges.

Laegjarn started to float up into the air, experiencing her first and her last unlock potential experience. Her body started to shine with a great fiery brilliance, absorbing the feathers, and from her, exploded a fiery explosion of harmless energy.

Landing on the ground, she felt herself. I stood up, looking at her. She had a few golden sparkles on her body, as well as a powerful yet calm aura, that was slightly terrifying.

I was a bit shaken by the amount of power she possessed, and unbeknownst to myself, I was quivering a little. Laegjarn however, noticed. "Kyren, do not be afraid. I will not harm you."

Snapping out of the daze and awe of the power I sensed from her, I scratched my head a bit from embarrassment. "My apologies, princess. It's just that...your power is beyond what I had ever imagined."

But wait...I thought to myself, she was supposed to get a new weapon, right?...well, maybe due to the fact that she was never summoned or fought in a grand hero battle, she never inherently had it.

"Laegjarn...does your kingdom have any weapons that you could possibly wield, or has a destiny? Like...a holy weapon, a legendary weapon?" Laegjarn thought about it, then nodded. "Yes...we have them all at a holy temple. However, I doubt that my father will allow it."

I frowned. "why not?" This was surely something that I hadn't been expecting. She sighed. "If the weapon does not accept the one who touches its hilt, either from lack of power or lack of morals, then it may seriously injure or even kill the one who attempts to bear it."

My eyes widened. Knowing Surtr...he would never allow Laegjarn to do something like that. Contrary to his gigantic and beastly appearance, he was actually quite a loving father and a just king, but he wasn't the smartest fellow around.

I bit my lip. "Laegjarn, I told you that I took and am willing to take many more risks to change this twisted universe we live in, correct?" Laegjarn nodded. "Yes...I understand what you mean. You intend to ask me if I have the heart to do the same."

"Exactly, Princess. Are you willing to do such a thing?" She paused, not knowing what to say. Would she do so? Or would she not? She paced around the room, pondering her decision that could possibly change her life for the better, or end her life.

She looked up at me. "Will you accompany me to the temple?" I nodded. She had made her choice; it was hers to take. She held her hand on her heart. "After all, I am the crown princess of Muspell. It would be a disgrace for me to not do so."

Before we could head out, Lukas ran to us. "It's time for the invasion, Jormungandr. You and Laegjarn must come to lead, as you two are the leaders of the Eternal Flames." I nodded. "Are the tunnels finished?" Lukas reported back, "They have already gone under the walls of Nifl's capital now. They will make the openings when all of the Eternal Flames arrive."

Running towards the entrance of the tunnels and putting my phoenix crest on, I noticed that there was a large army there. The Eternal Flames...they were not only consisted of normal heroes, but also young and idealistic soldiers.

I didn't know all of their names, nor did I think I want to. There always was the possibility of them dying, which I would prevent. But if it ever happened, knowing their names would only serve to deal more pain.

Heading to the stadium, I towered over the entire army, standing on a high place. "And now...you all know what we fight for. Will you give your lives for I, Jormugandr's cause?"

They slammed the hilts of their weapons to their chests, and roared, "YES, MILORD!" I nodded. "No matter how strong an army is...if it does not have the willingness to act, to do what it's supposed to do, it may as well be fully composed of dead men. ARE YOU ALL DEAD MEN?!"

"NO, MILORD!" "GOOD! Now, do your job! As usual, I will pay your families triple the amount which you were promised if you fall in battle! Let's go!" The soldiers started to march into the tunnels, to war.

"If you're trying to act tough to them, you're not doing a great job." Laevatein said, as I walked down. I sighed. "Well...at least explain?" Laegjarn chuckled a bit, as her sister remained silent.

"You try to be this tough warlord, but it's obvious that you care about them a lot. You put the budget into making food that is normally reserved for nobility for them, your way of insurance is remarkably generous compared to others before you, and you pretty much indirectly stated that you didn't want them to die, as you questioned them whether if they were and wanted to be dead men."

Laevatein then decided to speak for once. "You...you don't treat us like weapons. Well...father was always kind to me, but the tutors always taught me that those who fought in war were weapons themselves. You...treat us as if...what's the word?"

A good guy? They thought that I was a good guy?...what was I doing? "Please don't take this the wrong way. While weapons are quite useful, a weapon without a will, a controlling force behind it, is useless. Same thing with soldiers. If they have no will, they cannot fight on, or cannot fight on as efficiently as they could have. I put a lot of the budget into food because I like using food as a motivation, and with the soldiers' bland tastes, such things are basically paradise for them.

"Camus!" I yelled, as he noticed me. Nodding, he let me jump onto his horse, and leading the other heroes, we dashed into the tunnels. The entire trip was about 10 minutes, as we got to the tunnel that led to the HQ, I looked at most of my heroes.

We really didn't have to use so much heroes to take the palace, I thought. After all, there would only be palace guards, and the only real challenge would be the Nifl royal family, which in our last and first encounter, had proved themselves to be highly incompetent.

I glanced at all of the heroes, more numerous than last time I had ever counted.

Red units:

Arden: Strong and Tough and Definitely not Slow

Raigh: Edgy Child

Katarina: Wayward One

Marth: Altean Prince

Xander: Paragon Idiot

Celica: Caring Princess

Blue units:

Odin: Totally Not Owain

Lukas: Sharp Soldier

Shigure: Uplifting Artist

Camus: Sable Knight

Robin: High Deliverer

Reinhardt: Thundercock

Green:

Minerva: Red Dragoon

Frederick: Butler Perfectionist

Nino: Pious Mage

Batre: Fearless Warrior

Barst: The Hatchet

Raven: Peerless Fighter

Colourless:

Blyn: Brave Lady

Takumi: Pinapple Prince

Matthew: Faithful Spy

Virion: Virgin Archer

Maria: Minerva's Sister

Leon: True of Heart

"Alright...I only need Camus, Laegjarn, Minerva, Maria, Reinhardt, Raven, Celica, and Takumi. The rest, you all can go for the military HQ along with the other soldiers." They headed towards the other tunnels, following the soldiers.

I looked at the tunnel leading to the palace. "Alright...the guards will be easy. The real challenge will be the Nifl royal family and possibly their retainers. But anyway...let's get this thing done."

Laegjarn kicked open the cap, and climbed into the palace, and she started to rub her arms. I felt the cold as well, and rubbed my arms. Underground, we had flames, but it seemed that it was almost as if the ice palace made no flame significant enough to break through.

I gritted my teeth. This place was really cold...even though I had brought a coat in preparation to combat the cold, it was almost as if it was like Black Luna, negating nearly all of the defenses that my coat had in for me...

"We've got to hurry. We may be powerful, but we won't last too long." starting to run, I nearly slipped, until Laegjarn caught me. However, my momentum instead created a chain reaction, and when Maria caught Laegjarn to stop her, she was slipping as well.

Within seconds, the entire strike force was already on the ground, rubbing their asses in pain. I stumbled up, feeling a bump on my head, only to meet the tip of a highly decorated lance. Staring up at its owner, I could see a young teenage blonde, her blue eyes full of hatred.

I held my hands up. "Er...who are you?..." She glared at me. "I am princess Fjorm. And...you are the one who calls himself Jormungandr, correct?" I nodded, groaning as I stood up.

She was quite a beautiful woman, even when she was scowling with anger. Her hair was short, and her blue eyes were sharp and glaring...but she wasn't really my type, especially due to the fact that she had a lance to my face.

Then I realized the situation. Most of us were on the ground, and the entire Nifl royal family alongside a few retainers were there, ready for a fight. I bit my lip, and Princess Fjorm drew her lance back, to stab me, still slightly disoriented from landing on the back of my head.

Before it could enter me, a silver sword knocked it out of the way. Laegjarn stood in front of me, glaring. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him." I got up. "Look...if you all surrender, we can ensure that no citizen of yours can be harmed."

The pink haired woman in...pajamas?...glared at me and held out her tome. "Nonsense. You obviously have the disadvantage here." she chanted a few words, and Laegjarn pushed me out of the way, as a cold wind went toward us and the heroes.

Screams and groans were heard as my heroes were hit by the ice magic, and I looked back. Great Scott...I thought to myself. Minerva, Reinhardt, Celica, and Takumi were all standing in place, dead.

It hadn't just killed them...it had literally frozen them up, freezing the life out of them. As Maria crawled over to touch her frozen sister, her arm fell off, revealing a bloody stump.

Before she could let out a scream of anguish and terror, I hugged her, wrapping her into my cloak, as I felt her salty tears wet my armor and cloak. "Sh...it's going to be fine..." though I knew that it wasn't at all. I hadn't thought that they had access to weapons as powerful as this.

While they in the long term were at a tactical disadvantage, as the entire musspell army had surrounded the entire city from within, we right now were at a disadvantage, with almost half of my forces gone.

Fjorm held her lance towards Laegjarn. "Fight me. We will decide it here with a duel. If I win, then you will retreat. If you win, the city will be yours. You have my word as the princess of Nifl. Will you accept this offer?"

I didn't know whether to say yes or no. Laegjarn said to me, "Trust me...I can handle her. I've handled her before, I don't see why I can't handle her now." She drew her silver sword, while Fjorm drew a different weapon from the silver lance that she had pointed at me.

Noticing the intricate designs on the lance, I wondered what that was...probably a Niflhem legendary weapon, just like that tome. Laegjarn twirled her blade, and charged at the ice princess.

Fjorm got in a defensive stance, preparing to block the blow with her lance. As Laegjarn landed a direct hit, Fjorm raised her lance, blocking and absorbing the impact. Laegjarn flipped backwards, brandishing her blade.

I frowned. Not many weapons would be able to absorb the impact of Laegjarn's immense physical strength without causing some sort of discomfort towards the victim.

Fjorm charged forwards, and did a sweeping motion. Laegjarn responded by jumping over it. Even if she primarily fought on a wyvern, this didn't mean that she was no less skilled with her feet.

Pressing her backwards with several consecutive strikes, Laegjarn kicked Fjorm in the stomach, though the ice princess managed to turn to the side, using her hip to absorb and minimize the damage.

She then activated her special...glacies. "Leiptr! Lance of ice!" My eyes widened as she flipped, and sent her lance crashing down. Running to the side, I managed to dodge the chunks of marble that flew everywhere.

Luckily, Laegjarn dodged the attack in the nick of time. However, she was hit by a rock to gut, and another chunk to the face. I gritted my teeth as she stumbled, wiping a drop of blood off her chin.

Leiptr...so that was the weapon I desired when I conquered the three cities, one of the same name. Gr...so that dratted lance was a legendary weapon. Now...in the hands of the princess, if Laegjarn defeated Fjorm, then we would be able to crush their fighting spirit, as a legendary weapon wielded by the princess herself was still defeated by a warrior with a silver blade.

However...if Laegjarn was defeated instead, this would bloster their fighting spirit. Very rarely was Laegjarn defeated in combat, and if she was, it would only prove to them that Muspell wasn't unstoppable.

Laegjarn barely stopped the tip of the lance from piercing her head with her sword, as she used the guard of her sword to block it. She was pushed back by Fjorm's relentless charge, and moved to the side, as the lance buried itself in the wall.

Lunging at the ice princess, Laegjarn was caught off-guard as Fjorm pulled the lance out of the wall with ease, and whacked her with it. Laegjarn knelt on the ground, coughing. It was a solid hit, and I could've sworn that it left a few cracks on her ribs.

Fjorm stabbed the lance towards her, and Laegjarn grabbed it with her hands, preventing it from going towards her face. Fjorm snarled at her, "Yield." Laegjarn spat in her face, "Never."

Yelling, Fjorm applied more pressure to the lance, and Laegjarn used it to launch herself up. Taking her silver sword, she gave a slash at Fjorm's lower backside, only for it to deal a small slice.

I stared in wonder...what was this? She hadn't been this resistant...then I looked at her numbers. There was a blue number at her defense stat, along with something on the higher part on her back.

A little girl...I looked at her skills. Attack defense bond...so she was abusing this to give herself an advantage. As long as the little girl stayed on her back, then she would have a boost in her attack and defense.

I then looked at her family. Drive skills and tactic skills...no wonder Laegjarn had so much trouble wounding her. Fjorm charged, and Laegjarn, weary, grabbed her by the throat.

Heaving her up as Fjorm struggled against her hand, she threw her down. Fjorm managed to catch herself, and prevent her from crushing the child on her back. But by now, Laegjarn had already tired out.

I could see the pain and weariness in her eyes. It was no doubt that she had been exhausted, and worn out from the intense fight. Fjorm thrust her leg out, and this time Laegjarn had moved too slow.

Laegjarn flew a few feet away, as Fjorm stood above her. I had to do something. Going behind the heroes, I climbed up the stairs. I had a sign, a flare to signify the soldiers to take the palace or HQ in case if things went wrong.

Rushing up the stairs, I got the tome, preparing to chant the incantations. Before I could fire it, I heard a voice. "Going somewhere, Muspellian scum?" I spun around, to see a figure with a few retainers. I shook my head. Great...I doubted that it would even require two of these retainers to defeat me.

Just like Muspellian soldiers, Niflhem soldiers were physically enhanced compared to normal humans like me. So...there was no way I could ever defeat them, especially not with a tiny silver dagger.

I held the tome. "Once I say the words, my soldiers will enter this place and take the Military HQ and the palace. We won't harm the civilians, but it would be a lot easier if you surrendered."

The princely figure shook his head. "We never do. Go on, fire it." I was a tad bit surprised at his reaction. It was one of smugness, and a certainty that they would win. I didn't like that smile one bit...

He glared at me. "Was it a bluff all along?...Sorry, but I'm going to have to kill you." Panicking, I chanted the incantation. "Huo shao ruchen, meiwang huohai!" A fireball was shot into the air, as the watchmen noticed it.

Soldiers began to pour out of the tunnels, rushing into the city and towards the military HQ as well as the palace. Most of them were mounted, though the ones who were fast enough to run without tiring themselves out used their feet instead.

Preparing their weapons, they charged in, towards the military HQ and the palace. I looked down below. I only had one option: jump. As a soldier menacingly walked towards me, I pulled out my dagger, trying to buy myself time.

Shaking my head in utter disbelief, I lunged at the soldier. He braced himself, expecting the dagger to deal a healthy amount of damage, as it clanged against his armor. He looked on in slight surprise, and a smile came to his face.

"So...Muspell's tactician is a weakling like this?" His left fist came towards me, aiming right towards my face. I ducked, managing to dodge the blow, and tackled him, only to be kicked off by the other soldier.

I looked at my dagger. It wouldn't be much use. I threw it at the first soldier, it striking him true in the face. He didn't even flinch, and just stared at the dagger that had ricocheted off his face like a rubber toy.

"...let's stop fooling around, boys. When we get his head, we'll be greatly rewarded for this!" He stabbed his lance at me, and I barely dodged it, moving my hips out of the way.

Good thing that none of them were extremely fast...well, it seemed that at least most of them weren't superhumanly fast, but definitely superhumanly strong and resilient.

I looked at their stats. I was horrible with magic, having only studied it for a few weeks, but at least I would be able to slow them down with a gravity spell. I pulled out a gravity staff from my side, and yelled, "gint axi yragtiv, nodg uozz lai!"

Well...that was at least what the staff told me to say on its carvings. If one turn was about a minute, then at least I would have enough time before that prince that I believed to be Hrid decided that he would do it himself. He seemed to be having a nice time watching his own retainers chasing after my heels.

Within 10 seconds, they started to move again. I was a bit taken aback, but then realized with my pitiably low experience with the staff, I wasn't going to be stopping anything for too long.

One of them caught up to me, and I noticed a familiar wyvern coming over. Cyclonus...yeah, he had became so used to Laegjarn using him to save me that he himself had probably learnt that this was probably a given without his own owner telling him to do so.

I whacked the soldier that had caught up to me with the gravity staff, only for him to wave off the blow, and break the staff with a swipe of his axe. Another soldier ran over, and swiped his sword, yelling, "Imma shove ma sword up cho ass!" Managing to dodge him, I could see Cyclonus coming closer, and I jumped backwards, expecting myself to be caught by the wyvern.

Instead, I crashed onto the balcony instead, face-first, as Cyclonus sped past me, the poor beast probably thinking that he had caught me. I groaned, feeling a few splinters up my hind. Well, at least it was better than a sword.

As I caught myself, I hurried backwards, hoping that the soldiers up there didn't see me. I turned around, and saw Laegjarn being beaten by Fjorm. Fjorm kicked the other princess, as Laegjarn flew backwards, into a wall.

A few rocks went down, as blood covered her face. Fjorm glared at the other princess, lifting her head up. "Why do you fight, Princess? Why do you invade?" Laegjarn growled at her, "Then why don't you do the reasonable thing to do? Even if you beat me, you'll lose." Fjorm smashed her head into the wall, and kicked her, pinning her down. "Surrender, and I may spare your miserable life. I didn't want to do this...but it seems like you need a bit of convincing."

I noticed a figure peering from the doorway, her eyes full of rage. Laevatein...I could see that she could barely contains her tears and was clenching her fists and jaw in anger.

She burst in, catching Fjorm off-guard. Swinging from a pillar, she launched herself into Fjorm, kicking her off from her sister. Hurrying, she held her sister by her shoulder. Laegjarn managed to say, "Pull back...I lost...I made a promise..."

Fjorm and Gunnthra glared them, preparing to launch an attack that would destroy the rest of the heroes. As I wondered what to do, I noticed Cyclonus. Maybe...he could be a distraction!

Motioning to him, I pointed to the side, to destroy it. Cyclonus nodded as a sign of recognition, and closed his mouth. I realized what that meant, and smiled. As the summoner of Muspell, I was immune to most forms of heat, except for magical heat.

The intelligent wyvern crashed into the room, roaring in all of its glory, and released a stream of fire, in which the Queen protected her family members defended herself and her family with a super-sized version of Aegis.

As Fjorm attacked Cyclonus, the gigantic beast pounced on her as soon as he noticed Laevatein carrying Laegjarn's wounded form, angered by his master's injuries. As it snapped at Fjorm, trying to kill her, Laevatein clicked her tongue.

Cyclonus turned his head to acknowledge her, but not before knocking away the rest of the Nifl family with his tail, and smacking Fjorm across the room with his snout. The majestic beast headed towards my location, picking up Laevatein and Laegjarn, and as soon as he registered Maria as a healer, he picked her up as well.

I looked at them all. "Alright, we have to get out quickly. Now..." Prince Hrid and his retainers landed in front of us. "So you survived...Jormungandr, you surely are a sly snake."

I looked at the situation. Hrid was strong...I could see it from his stats. He could surely give Surtr a run for his money, and he seemed to be quite brash, like Ephraim...I couldn't stand people who were brash and overpowered at the same time.

However, I needed to get out quickly...and Cyclonus could only carry 4 people without tiring out very soon. I looked at Camus and Raven. "Can I trust that you can buy us some time?"

Raven sighed, shaking his head. "...I can definitely fight them off, but am I surviving?" Camus glared at him. "It's not about surviving. It's about whether if he can escape or not, whether if he and the princesses can survive or not."

Raven drew Basillikos. "Fine. Well...before I die, I'd better bust some heads." As Hrid charged forward, Camus stopped him with Gradivius. "A waste of life." Hrid growled, and pounced on Camus, the two men starting to fight.

Hrid obviously wasn't the smartest man in the world, as it would definitely be easier to tackle me, and even furthermore, I probably wouldn't provide much resistance against him. But since Camus had blocked his attack, and insulted him, look where he was now, right on the ground, wrestling like babies.

Camus fought against Hrid, wrestling him down onto the ground, struggling with him, while Raven beheaded a soldier with Basillikos, and slammed another into the wall, and went after the Nifl family. "Go, now! Don't let our work go to waste!"

I nodded, as an arrow glanced off my armor. I yelled at Laevatein, "Kill that archer!" Laevatein took her sister's silver sword, and threw it, at the archer, striking true as she impaled her head to the wall.

Flying up into the air, Cyclonus reared as a blast of wind caught us after flying for 3 minutes. I looked down, and realized that it was Gunnthra. Well...good thing we were a lot further away from her, so that none of us would end up as popsicles without sticks up our hinds.

Looking down below, the soldiers had already destroyed the military HQ, and the royal palace was next. This was good...we had distracted the royal family from doing their job, and now they were next.

Originally I had planned to capture the royal family, but this was a good option anyway. As Cyclonus neared them once more, I yelled out to the queen. "Queen of Nifl! You are now surrounded, and your city has been taken! We would rather not kill you, but if you keep offering resistance against us, I cannot guarantee your survival! I have spared the civilians, so please consider your options!"

The queen of Nifl yelled back, "Do you consider yourself to be some kind of savior? Do you expect us to surrender so easily?" I yelled back, "I hardly expect anyone to surrender, but I'd always be willingly to give them a chance to! And if you think I consider myself to be some kind of savior, I'm not! I'm just trying to minimize losses!"

She held up a tome, and started to chant a few words. "Behold...Nifl's secret weapon! Please, light up our darkest hour!" I frowned as she did so, and widened my eyes at the sight of the monstrosity that had formed before me, its horrifying yet majestic face glaring at me right in the eye.

"So...this is Jormungandr...the a**hole who has tried to conquer Nifl...I cannot allow this...also, I'm going to need to sleep another century after this, so please don't bother me again by living, you little sh*ts." the voice boomed, while the mouth moved in a snapping motion, seemingly aggressively.

Before me, was an image of a gigantic ice dragon, roaring in all of its majestic glory. "This will teach you never to come back again." I glared at it. "I dare you." I spurred the wyvern forward, circling around it and firing flames against it, to no avail.

It glared back at me. "n****, you look like an Eragon wannabe, look at this m*thaf*cka trying to be freaking Naga herself! You got tha courage, but you ain't got tha skin!" I reacted in surprise. I wasn't expecting so much enthusiasm in his voice, much less for him to talk like a gangster.

Cyclonus roared, and shot himself towards the ice dragon. The ice dragon responded by picking up a blizzard, and it opened its mouth, trying to eat the group of us. "Imma shove y'all down ma throat, right where the intestines live! It used be tongues and rods that went down there, but the enemy ain't too bad either!"

...for a divine dragon, he sure was talkative and dirty-mouthed. "Hey, why don't you stare down there?! Don't cha wanna see? Don't cha wanna see something long, brown and sticky? Don't be a bunch of spineless c*nts! I'm a m*thaf*cking dragon, of course I don't need no clothes!"

Keeping myself on Cyclonus, I ordered a bunch of wyvern knights to group up on this dragon. Launching ourselves towards him, fire spitting from the wyverns' mouths, the gigantic ice dragon instead responded by unleashing a gigantic blizzard. "I'M HIGH AS F*CK RIGHT NOW!"

The entire force of wyvern knights were blown back by the sudden force of snow. "YEAH! Y'ALL SEE MA SIZE UP HERE?! I GOT THIS FOR KILLING A C*KTON OF PEOPLE! THIS IS PROOF THAT I'M STRONG AND OP AS F*CK! BET CH'ALL P*SSIES CAN'T HANDLE THIS!"

As the lot of us kept on trying to suppress the storm, a figure jumped up. Hrid...he swung his weapon, and took down a wyvern knight. "YEAH, HRID! YOU SEE PAPA DRAGON KO-ING THESE LITTLE SH*TS WITHOUT EFFORT?! DADADADA, THE M*THAF*CKIN' DRACONIC N**** HAS COME TO TOWN! WATCH AND LEARN, P*SSIES!"

I glared at him, rather annoyed at the use of so much profanity. "Will you shut up?!" The ice dragon ignored me, and started to expel icy breath from its mouth. "NO NO NO, MARIJUANA! STAY INSIDE ME! LET Y'ALL TAAASTE MY LOVE!" I mentally face palmed...so this is what you get when a divine being gets on crack...it was kinda hard to take him seriously at this point.

I roared, "Vulcanus!" sparking my armor up in flames, in a desperate attempt to use my flames to protect the others from the incoming ice breath.

It glared at us, and dove at the soldiers, freezing them all up, much to my horror. They weren't encased in a blanket of ice, the effect was quite like Gunnthra's, like being frozen in to a bunch of ice statues.

"Y'ALL LOOK LIKE POPSICLES WITHOUT STICKS UP CHO A**ES! WE GONNA EAT BIG, PEOPLE! POPSI-PARTAE!"

I pointed Briedabilik at it, hoping that this nigh-useless-in-combat legendary "weapon" could help me. And then, everything went black.

* * *

1 hour later

Waking up in my bed, I looked at the time. Crap...I had to finish my work quickly. Opening up a portal, I headed into my room back at Earth near John Hopkins, and then came back to Muspell with the studies.

While I wrote down my homework, typing down an essay and writing out the details, doing a report on my film studies and editing clips, I called to any hero that was outside guarding the door. Periodically, it should be...nobody. Takumi and Reinhardt hadn't been revived yet.

I came out of my room, to meet Maria. "Oh...hello, Maria. Where are the others?" Maria twirled her little staff a bit. "They're all dead...the ice dragon killed them all." I frowned. "Wait...what happened? tell me the whole story!"

Maria looked at the ground, her face rather dejected. "I know my sister will live after you revive her...but the same can't be said for the Muspellians who were killed in the blast."

My eyes widened. That ice dragon...no, it couldn't have. "No, no...no...no...they're all dead?!" Maria rubbed her palms nervously. "Thankfully, they can only use it once...according to his words."

I nodded, keeping my calm, even when my mental world was crashing on the inside. Why had they died?...no, it wasn't just because of that dratted ice dragon. No...it was because I had ordered them to swarm the military HQ and the palace.

I could have prevented their deaths. I could have let so many of them, go back home victorious, to see their families and live to tell the tales of how they helped made the universe a better place for everyone. But now...they were frozen in an icy grave.

"So...are you going to revive everybody?" a familiar voice sounded, and I looked up at Katarina. "You survived?...how?" she sighed. "I was a bit too slow...I'm a horrible runner, and so when the ice dragon killed everyone, I managed to escape with a few other soldiers through the tunnels, including Helbindi."

I loaded a stamina potion into the Briedabilik, and fired it up into the air, reviving the heroes. I looked at them, with a dejected attitude in my voice and eyes. "...you can do whatever you want now. It's free time."

Heading back to my room, Katarina put her hand on my shoulder. "Jormugandr-" I looked at her. "Please...not now." She removed her hand from my shoulder and let me go back.

As I closed the door, I could see the look of sadness on her face. I knew what she was thinking, she was thinking about how I couldn't do anything at all. She most likely had romantic feelings for me, as I knew that she saw me as Kris, but at the same time, I only regarded her as a little sister.

I looked at her level. 39...I knew what her confession would be, so I stopped training her afterwards. I didn't want to face the pain that she would take if I told her that I wasn't romantically inclined with her, and only saw her as a little sister.

Heading back to my desk, I started to write my homework again, and edit clips. There was no internet here, but since all I needed was just the software, it was not much of a problem.

These people...I would never see them again. Heroes could be revived, but Muspellians couldn't. I knew that this was just life, that this was just the way of life...but it was still preventable. I could have deduced that they had a trap for us by Hrid's smug smile, the presence of their legendary weapons...but why couldn't I see it?!

Throwing a dagger into one of the targets, I glared at it. An image of my teachers and some friends appeared in my head. "No matter what, you cannot save everyone. What is the point of saving others anyway?"

Growling in my mind, I retorted, "Because it's the right thing to do." "What is the point of doing the right thing if there is nothing to benefit you?" "It's not about benefiting myself...even if I do feel good after doing the right thing, that's not the point."

"What the hell do you think you are?" I spun around, to see an image of my former girlfriend. She yelled at me, "It's all about you, right? Everything's about you!" I yelled back, "You always just wanted to make me look bad!"

"Stop playing the victim, Kyren!" "..." I didn't reply to her anymore. In the past, I had decided to make her hate me, so she could stop bugging me...but oftentimes, the visions still came back.

"We're in a tough world, Kyren. Wrong and right doesn't matter anymore." I whirled around to meet my brother. "Kenny!" He glared at me. "Don't give me that look, Kyren." I shook my head. "Kenny, there is a sense of wrong and right! Just because nobody knows what's wrong and right doesn't mean there isn't wrong and right anymore!"

"And what will they say, then? will they believe that you're correct?" "...look, they must accept it-" "How can people accept it if they don't like it?!" "Enough, Kenny! I'm doing this to create a better world-"

"And will they accept it?" I remained silent before speaking. "It doesn't matter whether if they'll accept it or not. What that matters is what's good for them...if they don't like it even with positive effects, then they're a bunch of ingrates. While I do care about opinions, I care more about effectiveness."

"You allowed so many people to die?" I turned around, this time to look at Kiran. "I knew that you were messed up...but I never knew you would do something like this!"

I glared at him. "Kiran, look-" "You always said that a leader was to defend his own, to protect the weak! Look at you now! You're the one of the only survivors, and-" "Sometimes I must sacrifice others for the greater good!"

"Maybe so, but it's not so much of a sacrifice if it's completely avoidable!" I glared at him. "You were never the one to say something like this! You always were the one to say gray morality and crap like that! Why do you care now?!"

"Because you're going back on your own morals, fool." I felt the pain on my face and rest of my body as I was punched to the ground. "Why don't you do the world a favor and disappear, Kyren?"

I woke up, tears down my face, and to my surprise, I found someone standing in front of me. "...you done now?" Laegjarn said, healed from staves and elixirs. I put my stuff away, into my bag.

"I can't do this anymore, Laegjarn. I'm going back to my world, permanently." She looked at me, saying nothing. I looked back at her. "Well...this is goodbye, then."

Before I could summon the portal to head back to my world, I felt my cheek suddenly sting in pain as she slapped me.

* * *

 **Omake**

The ice dragon rose up, and looked at the army around him, as well as the figure in black armor and cape in front of him, with the mask of a phoenix. He yelled, "I requested to be summoned when a sh*tload of badasses showed up to destroy Nifl! Maybe like Muspell's mathaf*ckin draconic n****, instead what did I get? Some little guy calling himself Jormungandr, when he's a minuscule snippetf*ck who can't even wrap himself the whole world and pleasure himself orally! You look like Hiccup from how to train your dragon, but even weaker and even more pissed off! Look at that wyvern of yours! He may seem big and awesome, but I bet he's such a disgrace to his motha that she killed herself so she wouldn't feel his d*ck inside her! You all reek of fire that was stored inside someone's p*ssy, was then shoved down so hard your m*thaf*cking fire dragon's throat that you smell more like s*m*n load of sh*t! I'm gonna blow you so hard, you sensitive p*ssies are gonna scream so hard that you'd outmatch your fathers when they went to the brothel! You all signed up to bang the Niflems, but probably cried like sissies when they got a m*thaf*ckin ice n**** to f*k you all up! Imma shove my icicles so far and hard up yer a**es, I'd trigger a geological event that will change all history! And yes, fear me! Because i'mma make you unstoppable sex loving egomaniacal supremacisty c*k-blocking sh*tstains spew your ju-"

Naga glared at him. "Shut up. you're really noisy."

"Aw...it was getting fun. But with that...bye bye!"

The Muspellians began to scream as the ice dragon released his breath on them. One wonders why while he was giving his long speech, they didn't even attempt to run away.

* * *

 **thanks for reading! I'm sorry that I haven't updated this for a while, but hey, at least I did now! (okay...that was kinda lame) But anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and have a great time!**

 **Edit: kids, don't do drugs. That was just for comedy purposes, but don't follow the ice dragon's example.**


	6. Kraken

I glared at her, holding my cheek. "What was that for?" I felt a sudden pain at my stomach, followed by me flying into the wall. Laegjarn held her foot up. "...Jormungandr, what the heck are you thinking?"

Frowning at her, I stood up with less difficulty than I should have, due to my armor absorbing a bit of the impact. "Laegjarn, I can't do this anymore. I should have prevented their deaths. I could have prevented their deaths. Now what can I do about it?!"

Laegjarn punched me again. I responded, "Laegjarn, I'm not anybody special! in my world, I'm like the lowest of nobility. I don't have royal blood like you, I'm not special in any way. You should really let me go back." I coughed, hurt from her punch. I had to talk her out of this. I couldn't do this anymore.

"Laegjarn I-" she slammed me to the wall. "Jormugandr...no, Kyren...how is this like you? Have you forgotten yourself?" I shook my head. "I know what you mean. You're going to say to me what I once said in the past, that we shouldn't just bemoan over the past, but should take action to fix the situation the past has done."

I paused for a bit. "I can't do this. I just realized...how much weight rests on my shoulders...and losing that weight really hurts. I don't want to do this." I opened up the portal again, it having disappeared due to the distraction.

Before I could go in again, I felt myself being lifted up by Laegjarn. "Get this out of your system, Kyren." I gulped, as I prepared myself for the most painful moments of my life at this point.

A few minutes later, I had a few bruises on my body, my foot was twisted at a funny angle, and well...I could barely feel any part of myself, as I had been beaten up so harshly that I had become numb to the pain. I looked at Laegjarn. "Well, I find it interesting that you never targeted my face..."

Laegjarn yelled outside, "Healer!" Maria ran in, and started to heal me. "How did he-" "Don't ask." Maria nodded, and then ran out again. I stood up. "Laegjarn...I'm adamant about this. How can I lead if so many die on my watch, especially when I can prevent it?"

Slamming me into the wall again, she kicked me. "You literally killed a bunch of people just because they were in your way." I hissed back, "It was a necessary evii. I didn't have enough time to do so without killing them, not to mention nobody really liked them in the first place. However...when the ones under my watch die...it's worse, especially when I could have prevented it. I can't do it."

"But then, who will?" Laegjarn shot back, glaring at me. "You're the smartest of us all. You may be weaker than us all, but your intelligence is nigh-unrivaled." I scoffed. "Nigh-unrivaled...Laegjarn, so many people in my world can do the same. Millions of them can-"

She slapped me. "Kyren...but from what you said about the world of your own, only you have the mentality to do so. To fight your enemies while giving them mercy." she pushed me against the wall, her elbows pressing into my ribs, giving me jolts of discomfort.

Shaking my head, I laughed off her remarks. "It's such an easy thing to do. Who can do it? Me, and a couple million of other people. Who the heck would care? Kiran was right...I should just do a favor to the world and disappear." Laegjarn grabbed me by the chin, making me look directly at her. She was slightly shorter than me, but it didn't make her any less intimidating.

"You may not be important in your mind...and I understand what you're thinking. You think that people hate you so much." I hissed back against her, "And they do. If somebody goes against the popular opinion, and even manages to win or put up a good fight, then he will be hated. Now Muspell must hate me for killing off so many of Muspellans. I can't face my own peers back in the real world, or Muspell either."

Laegjarn responded angrily, "Damnit, if you can't do it for them, at least do it for me!"

I blinked, before staring at her intently. "What..do you mean?" She slapped me. "I'm not asking you to do it for the people. I'm asking you to do it for me, as a friend, and as your princess."

she turned around, her armor blazing with blue fire. "Seeing you going so depressed over the deaths of so many people is pathetic. I knew you as one strong of mind, someone who wouldn't ever give up. And instead, you pull this on me?!"

I jumped into the portal, and closed it.

* * *

Landing in my bed, I took out my computer, and started to finish the project. After half an hour, I finished editing, and put it into dropbox. "Alright, if you dare to put that inside your computer, I will do everything I can to hack it back..."

the file disappeared, as apparently Kiran had pulled it into his computer instead of copying it down then pasting it onto his computer. "Why you, Kiran!" I yelled, and then switched to another file, before my computer rang.

It was Kiran. I clicked on the notification, and rolled my eyes as I switched to FaceTime. In front of me was a hispanic young man, with hair resembling the hotblooded wolverine+hulk ripoff known as Eren Yeager.

Looking at him, I asked, "Hey, Kiran. how's it been?" He shoved his hair out of his face. "Not too good, but not too bad. Gee, how the fuck you even keep your hair that good? You look like a girl at this point, with that length! No mames..."

Flicking my finger at the camera of the computer, I chuckled as I saw his surprised reaction. "Hey, man, not cool! No chinges!" "If you're wondering about my hair, I suppose it's just that my hair is naturally silky and straight."

He gave a grunt, sliding in front of his own computer, then got up. I asked him, "So, who's the girl you've been banging or something?" He shrugged. "Oh, it's a really smart girl called Robin, has white hair..."

"Robin?...oh, smart? How smart? Smart like you? Smart like me? Smart like Kenny?" "Smart like between me and you. I'm not sure." "Hm...how is she like personality-wise? Maybe...a female version of you?"

He thought for a second. "She was kinda rude at the beginning, it took me some effort to make her smile everytime she sees me, then, she actually acts a lot like me. Let's say that when I met her, she has-I mean, had a wrong conception about me."

"Oh...onto the love story, eh? I wouldn't mind the JUCIER details." I said, giving him a sneaky smile. I had no interest in dating, though I would never hesitate to make an inappropriate joke.

"Well, another girl told her a lot of bull-" I muted him for a second, then unmuted him as I feared either of my parents would come in and kill me because they heard a swear word. "-about me, due that, she thought I was a miserable pervert. It didn't help I like to stroke hair so, she punched me very hard."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, it seems that you haven't even learnt your lesson after you stroked mine." When we met each other again in college, after a few years of not seeing each other due to my high school transfer, he was amazed by my long hair that went down to my back. I didn't really blame him, it was a sight to see and feel as well, because I took baths regularly to take care of it and prevent it from getting greasy. But anyway, he had touched it, and I reacted by spinning around to face him.

What he and I didn't know was that Kenny had tied a rather large hairpin to my hair, and as soon as I spun around, it hit him right in the face, leaving me to wince in shock while he held his nose.

He sighed. "Yeah...I guess I didn't." I lay back. "Considering that you're a machocist, it wasn't too bad, eh?" "Well...I do have my limits. Basically, I kept on talking to her until she softened up, let me hug her...and finally, you know what we did."

"You really should have taken your sweet time to do it after the marriage. Seriously, it even seems like the reason why you're disappearing all these times is because you've gone to bang this girl or something."

He gave a hmph. "Well...I am going to marry her in two months." I face palmed. "You seem to enjoy this more than college itself...not that I blame you." I didn't really blame him...not when I myself used to enjoy conquering lands and strategizing...used to.

The weight of people dying on me was more than I thought...I thought that people dying before me would be normal, that I could stand it...but I was wrong. Every time I imagined their faces of disbelief and fear, frozen permanently by that dratted ice dragon, wondering where their savior was.

We remained silent for a few seconds, before I asked another question, one that bugged me to the core. "by the way, how would you cope with this? Imagine as if you were a general, and thousands of men died under you even though you could actually have prevented it?"

He sat there, thinking. "Um.. I don't understand why the question but... mmmh.. guilty of course.. probably I would be depressed, but I wouldn't cry until the end, first I would need to fix the sh*t I did, I mean, I cannot bring them back to life, but the army would still need me."

"...hm...that's around the lines of what most people have told me." I paused for a second, before flashing a sheepish smile. "you know what my psychology professor wants from me."

I sighed. While that was among the lines of what most people had told me, I knew that people liked to act brave. Many wanted to look good in front of people...but in the midst of what that wasn't imagination...was a bunch of nothingness. I thought about real-life cases. Many got drunk, some actually embraced it instead, reveling in the lives lost, while others died along with their troops.

"Yeah, he's a jerk. But anyway, have you heard of this new trend?...Never mind, you wouldn't be interested in it anyway." I frowned. "What are you talking about?...explain before you assume, please." he cleared his throat, and started to explain.

"Basically, there's this new, unexplained phenomenon of people being sucked to this fantasy world called...Askr. The government has been trying to find any dangers within this world, but there haven't been many normalities."

I looked at him. "...have you been sucked to this fantasy world? When did this start?" He lay back. "It's been around for about 9 months or so. I have been sucked into there, and to my knowledge, it just randomly chooses people, and once you're chosen, no one else really has access to your own Askr."

I leaned forward, genuinely interested now. "...what do you mean? Worlds?..." He sat upright, and rubbed his palms. "Alright...this could take a sec..." he finished a crude drawing of a person and a few lines, and destinations.

"Basically, for every person summoned, there will be an identical, but different world known as Askr for them. In other words, consider it a multiverse. Each Askr starts out the same, as well as most of the events, but there are obviously things that one can interfere with or affect."

I nodded. "However...is this ever explained? What are the statistics?" Kiran folded his arms. "hm...considering that many who have been summoned haven't shown interest in returning back to this world, or in other words, ever been seen again...I would estimate around more than 11.7 thousand."

"...it's that interesting?...escaping into that world permanently...tell me, what position do you take on?" he replied to me, "Oh...it's like, we get to become something called a summoner. We become tacticians, and the only person who can summon warriors called heroes to take on an enemy country known as Embla."

I folded my arms. "So...in other words, one is trying to win this war, but at the same time, one can live a relatively lavish life in that world...no wonder so many people decided to never come back."

He nodded. "Yes...there's food, money-making opportunities, it's hard to consider this a war zone when everything is so peaceful...heck, at one point, we even had the Emblain prince under our grasp for a month and he didn't even try to escape!"

I sat there, not really knowing what to say. After all, I hadn't been to this Askr of any sorts, so I was unable to connect with him. He apparently realized it, and asked me, "So, how's the other stuff? Kenny? etcetera?"

"Oh...Kenny's fine. I'm fine. So...anyway, bye then."

* * *

I sat at my table, my assignments and projects finished, up to date. I looked at myself. He was right in a way. But however...I shouldn't escape. Escape only delayed the inevitable, and sometimes made things worse.

"I'm asking you to do it for me, as a friend, and as your princess." I remembered Laegjarn's words to me. Did she really think of me that way? I was just at best the lowest of what could be considered nobility, so to have her think such things of me was surprising.

Opening the door of my house, I decided to take a walk outside. Was it really my fault? Did I have to heap the blame on me? Or was it just that I was so used to having the blame heaped upon me, that I willingly did so?

I reminisced my past, where my girlfriend kept accusing me of playing the victim, treating her like a horrible person, etc, and I cared so much to the point where I thought it would better for me to just stop caring altogether.

Now was the same. I had to stop thinking that these lives were mine to take the blame upon. Feeling sad was never the answer. If I didn't take action, who would? Well, Laegjarn would, but could she produce the same result? I doubted it.

As I kept on walking, I saw a dark, masked man. A mugger, probably. I knew that I had horrible combat capabilities compared to the Muspellans, justified by the fact that probably not even guns or bombs could even scratch them. He pulled out his fists, obviously wanting some money from me.

I thought about fighting him, maybe creating a cool scene...but then, nobody would be there to watch. I could take him on, but I had much more important matters on my mind.

Absentmindedly pulling out a knife, I pointed it at him. "Please get your rear hind out of here before I proceed to unleash death upon you, sir." he didn't question my odd way of speaking, instead just nodding and running out of my sight as fast as he could.

Keeping on with the walk, I thought about the circumstances of the battle. Did I kill them? Yes, and no. I could have prevented their deaths...but in the end, it was the Ice Dragon and the blasted Niflem queen who were responsible for their deaths.

Another friend of mine once said to me that if he could remove one word from the dictionary, it would be coward. I now understood it. The reason why Laegjarn was so angry wasn't because I was a coward, but because she didn't want me to act like one.

It didn't matter whether if someone's a coward or not, in the heart. What mattered was how one acts, what he or she does. In the end, feelings matter less than actions. Simple feelings will never achieve anything, but actions can and will.

However, would one be willing to act? I thought to myself whether if I could do so, to take advantage of this dark hour, and instead continue to lead them out to conquer Nifl.

No, this wasn't just about whether if I would be able to act. I must be able to act. Otherwise...my vision, and all these people...I would fail them. Just because I had accidentally helped cause a large amount of deaths didn't mean I had failed them yet. There was still hope, a chance to conquer the enemy. But through what means?

My hands were already bloody. Did it matter now that I continue to cover my hands in the blood of others? It may...but what could anyone do about it? I had power, and I would use it well. Just because I prevented deaths wouldn't ever erase the fact that I had caused deaths as well.

"Kyren!" I spun around, to hear the voice. It was Kenny. "...you've had a tough time, right?" I nodded towards his question, and sat down, my long hair drooping to my chest.

"...so, what happened?" I sighed. "Well...how do I say it...I know what I should do. However, I wonder if I can do it, whether if I'll have the heart to do it." He smiled a bit, and punched my right pec.

"Brother, you're the most intelligent and mentally strongest person in my life that I know personally. Of course, not the most handsome" he said to me, as he sat down on a rock, and ran his hands through his hair. I frowned at him. "Why so?" I wasn't so interested in handsomeness, as my long hair gave me an edge over his shorter hair.

He replied, "Hey, you've been always standing on the 'wrong' side for most of your life. Yet...often, you make it seem like you're right." I frowned. "That...doesn't seem as complimentary as I would expect. Also, why are you playing Licht und Schatten on your phone?"

"Dangit, Ni-san! I'm trying to have a moment here, and you keep on ruining it!" he collapsed inwards, his head ending up on his calves. "But anyway, Kyren..." I looked at him. "Yes?"

"If anyone says that you're not worth it, or that if you're wrong, don't just simply go for their reasoning. Look at the root of it. Look at the person, and see if they really mean harm or not. Sometimes, it isn't just the logic you have to fight, but also the intention."

I thought about it. "Yeah...thanks, Kenny." After sitting down on the rock for a while, I stood up. "So, how tall are you now?" I measured his height. Even though I was 18, I still had some growth spurts. Currently, I was a hundred and eighty seven centimeters.

He looked to me, his nose barely surpassing my shoulder. "Eh...I'll say about a hundred and seventy six centimeters." I ruffled his hair, which was considerably shorter than my hair, as mine reached down to my chest, while his only reached down to his cheeks. "Don't worry. You'll grow."

I got up, and started going back home. "Let's go, Kenny. I can handle myself out there, but I don't trust that you can." he followed me.

3 men went came in front of us... Through my line of sight, I could notice that one of them was the mugger that had earlier ran away from me. So apparently he wanted revenge. One of them pulled out a handgun.

I could hear Kenny gasp in fear. "Ni-san...what are we to do?" I shrugged. "If they want money...I could give them something." walking towards them, with my hands raised, I could see their condescending grins.

With one swift movement, I kicked the man with the gun in the crotch, then proceeded to get punched by the two others, a bit of blood coming from my nose. Kenny, being himself, came to my aide, kicking one off me, smashed his head with a rock, and then slammed the man's body onto the ground, knocking all the air out of him.

While he was shorter and younger than me, it was undeniable that Kenny had much more physical strength than I did...it was probably just natural. After all, we both played basketball with each other all the time, and took the same martial arts lessons for years.

Even though I was considered weak by Muspellan standards, I had gone under intense training for at least an hour each day, making me quite strong by my world's standards. However, Kenny was a prodigy at fighting and prediction, something that I wouldn't ever deny.

As the other one tried to punch me, I dodged it, and then grabbed his right hand by the palm. After narrowly dodging a kick to the crotch, I violently forced his right hand to my left, or in his perspective, his right, while sweeping his legs to prevent him from resisting.

He crashed onto the ground, as he held his arm in pain. Kenny then slammed his foot onto the man's face, knocking him out. Noticing the last one get to his feet, recovering from the crotch injury, he held his gun in the air. "Freeze! The money, now!"

Kenny held his hands up. "..." was his only response. However, I had another solution. Casually walking towards him, I gave a seemingly friendly smile at him. He pointed the gun at me. "I said freeze!"

Kenny yelled at me, "Ni-san, no!" I pressed the gun to my chest. "C'mon. Do it." He looked at me. "...excuse me?" I pressed the barrel to my chest. "Just do it." He shook his head, and pulled the trigger. No sound was heard, nor was anything fired.

I smiled. "I know a fake gun when I see one." He had a face of anger, directed towards me...until it was replaced by a face of pain and shock, as Kenny grabbed his head, and slammed it into a brick.

Looking at the three unconscious men, I looked at Kenny. "So...what should we do with them?" Kenny looked at them. "A waste of human flesh...killing them might be better for them."

Shaking my head, I disagreed with him. "Nah. We should just leave it to the police. If they ever question us, we just have to answer truthfully, and say that it was in self-defense."

Kenny wanted to protest, but he then relented. "Alright, then...hmm, I wonder how you're going to solve your problems." "What problems?" "Your college problems and whatnot."

Opening the door to our home, I glanced at him. "Through my actions."

* * *

As I returned to my room, I put my hands together, and whispered the magic words. "May the flames be with me." A portal erupted in front of me, it's fiery entrance wild and searing, though with my ability to withstand heat, it mattered less.

Entering the portal, I felt myself falling, and after an unspecified amount of time, I finally was deposited onto my chair. Looking in front of me, I recognized the familiar figure sitting on my sofa.

"So...have you made up your mind?" Laegjarn asked me. I nodded. "We...must avenge these people. It doesn't matter whose fault it is now. What matters is what I will do." I looked at her. "However...I must allow myself to go to the fullest of my limits."

I took 20 colorless badges, an armful of feathers, and started to chant the incantations while pointing my pathetic excuse of a legendary weapon at them. "Oh Naga, please hear my prayers. I offer this small offering of feathers and badges to have this hero rise above what he can currently do now, to reshape his life, to give him the power he needs to rend the heavens and gift justice upon the people."

While I had promoted myself quite a few times, and each time there would be levitation and sparkles whirling around me, this time, it felt different. I felt excruciating pain flowing through my veins, as instead of bronze or silver sparkles, a fiery blue aura went around me, as I was consumed by the bright flames.

As the feathers and badges flew towards me, I felt them covering me, and with a burst of energy expelling from my body, they were all gone. I looked at myself, a multitude of golden sparkles around me.

My armor, Vulcanus, instinctively started to form around me. I was slightly surprised at this, because oftentimes, instead of forming around me, my armor would instead fly to my body, covering, not form around it.

As the armor covered my body, the Phoenix Crest formed on my face, covering it, and I felt energy gathering around me. I let out a yell, as blue flames, instead of the normal flames erupted from Vulcanus, and then slowly died down.

The armor slowly started to disappear due to my will, and instead of fading away, it dissolved instead, like a liquid. I looked at it, and said, "Vulcanus." the armor itself started to form around my body again, and with a thought, it started to dissolve once more.

Looking at my statistics, I looked at my weapon slots. Instead of a silver dagger+, there was an empty space. Did this mean?... I looked at Laegjarn. "I haven't forgotten my promise. I will accompany you to the temple to retrieve the legendary weapons of Muspell."

She started to walk out of the room. "Come with me. Let's get to Cyclonus." I nodded, and followed her. As we got onto the wyvern, she shook the reins. "Let's go!"

I held my hand. "wait wait wait...let me train myself up for a sec. Also...as I heard that temple is dangerous, I'm just going to put Briedaiblik somewhere safe."

A lengthy amount of time later, I headed back to Cyclonus. My stats were still pitifully low, this time my attack stat being even lower than when I had that 4 star necklace.

Cyclonus let out a rumble of acknowledgement, and soared to the skies. Feeling the blast of wind on my face, I let out a cry of freedom, of relish in the flames that surrounded me.

After an hour of flying, we finally arrived at the temple. Laejgarn pulled out her silver sword, apparently wary of something. I frowned. "What...are there enemies?" I asked, pulling my dagger out.

She nodded. "There are guardians of the temple. Stay back." she held her hand out, preventing me from moving forward. I moved it down. "No, Laegjarn. Just because one is weak, never means that he or she is useless."

I flipped my silver dagger into my bag, pulling out a smoke dagger+ instead. "Even if I won't be doing much damage...I still have this." I looked at my own stats.

Jormungandr: Harbinger of Change

Level: 40

Weapon: Smoke dagger+ speed refine (with special thanks from Saizo)

HP:

Atk:13

Spd: 35

Def: 9

Res: 9

Movement Skill: Swap (Please accept my forgiveness, Stahl)

Special: Phoenix Crest

A Slot Skill: Darting blow 3

B Slot Skill: Poison strike 3

C Slot Skill: Defense Smoke

Seal: savage blow 3

She looked at me. "...fine. If you die on me, I'm killing you." I chuckled a bit at the joke. "Well said, Princess. Now...let's get this thing down." As we entered the temple, a rumbling was heard.

I frowned. "...it seems big...bigger than both of us." From the darkness, burst out a jotunn, a giant, wielding a club. It roared at us, and I instinctively threw my dagger, striking true in the chest...only for it to bounce off. I looked at Cyclonus, ready to fire a stream of flame. "Don't. You could harm Laegjarn." he whimpered, and sulked back.

Apparently, the strike was still enough for it to notice me, and the jotunn charged towards me. I sidestepped, the club barely missing me, as Laegjarn jumped in to battle the weakened foe.

I could see its statistics. Its attack, boosted by the battle club, was now significantly affected by the dagger, with his attack being decreased to 50, his speed being decreased to 16, his defense decreased to 29, and his resistance reduced to 29. His HP was now from 55 to 45.

Laegjarn let out a battle cry, and charged towards the jotunn, blocking his first strike with her silver blade. She slashed at the jotunn, reducing his Hp to 30, while he retaliated with his own blow.

She managed to dodge his blow, and grabbed the jotunn by his neck, only for him to catch her, and throw her into a wall. I took out another smoke dagger+, and threw it at the jotunn, hoping that I could buy her some time.

It looked at me, and roared, yelling, "Die, monkey!" I knew that the only advantage I had over him was speed, but that did little to stop me. Dodging his initial blow, I let him bury his club in the stone, and as he struggled to get it out, I hit him a few more times, reducing his HP to a mere 10.

It glared at me, and let out a roar. "SMASH!" he yelled, as he ran after me, and I could see its wounds starting to heal. "Crap...it's renewal 3." I gritted my teeth, as I threw another dagger at him. "Laegjarn, now!"

Laegjarn burst from behind him, and buried her sword in his back, and then drew it up, slicing the jotunn into two. With the jotunn down, both of us sat down, taking a drink of water.

Fighting was nothing like training. Everything was turned on, reflexes all up to the max level, and so, while fighting, it was apparent that we used a lot more energy than usual. Drinking a bottle of water, I stood up. "Let's get on to the next level."

As the three of us hurried to the next level, I kept on leading the way, and ignited Vulcanus. "Vulcanus!" the blue fire erupted from my armor, and shone in the darkness. While it did a bit to help us see, it didn't do much to see what was ahead.

Running forwards, I kept my eyes left, right, forwards, and upwards, most importantly upwards. Most people didn't expect anything from above, so if this temple was counting on that, I would be ready to make them disappointed in themselves.

However, before I could run any further, a claw grabbed me, and yanked me to the ground. I looked around, and realized why Cyclonus did so. There was a large body of water, and I would have fallen in if not for Cyclonus's actions.

I looked at it. I wasn't a big fan of getting wet, so I hoped that there would be a better way of getting across. But was Cyclonus the best option?...such a large body of water should house at least some hostile predators.

Throwing a rock into the water, I wondered what type of bubbles there were. As I threw in the rock, I felt a slight rumble. Okay...there was definitely something in the water. As I looked at the water, I noticed bubbles, probably six feet...six feet!

My eyes widened. If each of them were about my size, then this monster...must be impossibly big! I took another stone, the size of a baseball, and threw it as far as I could. My farthest throw was about 21 meters, and it took about 6 seconds.

After six seconds, I heard the rock land...on water. "...crap." I heard a sort of breathing noise, and looked around. This temple...was inside the mountain, or else the temple was a mountain. But as a mountain...there was a chance that there were trees around, and maybe their roots sticking out to this level...

I looked at Cyclonus. "Alright, Cyclonus. Blast some fire up there." the wyvern responded by blowing flames out of its mouth, and igniting the roots of the trees at the top of us.

As the flames revealed the truth to us, I couldn't believe my eyes. Down there in the water, was a gigantic monstrosity that I had only heard of in books. This wasn't even its head, it was probably only its mouth.

Rows of serrated teeth decorated its gigantic mouth, and formed around it in a circular fashion. From the size of it, it definitely wasn't a mile long as the old stories had exaggerated, but...gah, if only I could turn into that giant world serpent...

From what I could see, the mouth probably wasn't even the largest part of its body, which only made it more frightening. I peered over it, and realized that if it wanted to, it could kill us in one blow. Good thing that it was lazy...or was it? Was it just waiting to give us a miserable death?

Laegjarn looked at me. "So...what do we do now?...we can't exactly turn back, due to those jotunn." I thought of the three principles of strategy. To create, to flip, and to destroy. Would strategy work in this case?...I didn't know this time.

As I kept thinking, I heard an another rumbling. To my horror, the teeth was moving...and the mouth seemed to be rising. As I looked at the sides, I noticed that it had numerous limbs...dozens, in fact.

Oh..."Sweet mother of merciful flames, get out, it's a Kraken!" Laegjarn yelled, as the monstrosity lunged itself as us three. Running as fast as we could, I felt a tentacle wrap around my body.

Feeling myself being lifted up into the air, I looked backwards, at the monstrosity that was about to eat me. It's gigantic mouth was at the entrance to the chasm of water, and I was about to get dragged into it.

I wanted to scream, but instead, I felt all numb, some sort of fear overwhelming me, robbing my ability to struggle and fight back...not that it would have done much good anyway.

Feeling a warm feeling across my skin, I felt the tentacle squirm, and loosen its grip. Fire was bathing me, burning the slimy and wet tentacle around me. Ha...thank Naga, Cyclonus had used the fact that I was fire-resistant to burn the Kraken's tentacle, giving me a better chance to escape.

I tried getting out, but to my frustration, the tentacle was still too tight. I stabbed at it with my dagger, only for it to deal no damage. I gritted my teeth. I wasn't going to allow myself to die to some hentai-nightmarish fiend!

Letting out a bloodcurdling scream, Laegjarn charged towards me, sliding under the tentacle and my struggling form, and swiped her sword upwards, removing the part of the tentacle from its body.

I dropped to the ground, gasping in fear and excitement. "...I've never felt so alive in my life before." I remarked dryly, as I cleaned myself up. Laegjarn polished her sword once more. "That was too close, Kyren! Too close!"

Waving her off, I wiped my forehead with my handkerchief. "Understood, acknowledged, I get it..." good thing I hadn't brought Breidabilik. I didn't want to know how I would handle heroes charging off into the monstrosity's mouth, nor would I want to know what would happen if I broke Breidabilik...not that I didn't want to, as that pathetic excuse of a pistol just never helped in the direst of situations.

I looked across the carven, where the Kraken resided. "I can see a ledge on the other side, approximately 25 meters away. However...with the Kraken's size, I don't know if we can fly across without getting into another hentai nightmare again."

Laegjarn coughed. "Whats...hentai?" I thought about it. "...basically fantasies that men of my world often have that are drawn. It's disgusting." what made it even more disgusting was that I looked like an anime character, and so did all the others here. Laegjarn chuckled a little. "It seems that your world is quite an abominable place."

I nodded. "Yeah...but it's not the time to talk about my world. I gotta think of a way to defeat this beast." My eyes wandered to the water, then to my bag, then to Laegjarn, then to Cyclonus.

"Laegjarn...does your blood have any unique properties?" Laegjarn thought of it. "Yes. Muspellan blood is poisonous and acidic, even more so for those with royal blood. Whenever one touches it, it's almost as if it burns, like fire itself."

I rubbed my palms. "Perfect." Grabbing a water bottle, I dumped the water out, and looked at her. "I'm letting this beast get a bit of taste of intelligence." I aimed to create some kind of poison. Laegjarn looked at me. "This beast may be very well the last of its kind."

Gritting my teeth, I smirked. "Then let this abominable race fall under my feet." it indeed was disgusting. I could still feel its juices upon me, in a spot at my back where I couldn't exactly reach.

Looking at her, she prepared her sword. "You want to use my blood, correct?" I nodded, and held out the container, as she prepared to do the deed. I closed my eyes, as she sliced her arm, blood oozing out of the wound and dripping into the glass container. After 10 minutes, the beaker was up to 2 cm, and she collapsed, dizzy from blood loss. I gave her an elixir, restoring her health status.

I then searched for something harmful...something that could be potentially poisonous. Pulling out a plastic bottle, I shrugged. Using scissors, I cut a part of it, and then put it into the glass container, bubbling. I was no expert on chemistry, but I knew what was normally poisonous to aquatic life.

Then, I took a piece of lead from an old pencil my grandfather had given me. Removing it, I dropped it into the container, the toxic substance boiling in Laegjarn's blood. I then put an old battery in there, it being quickly melted by the toxicity of the blood.

I bit my lip, and glanced at the container. Would this be able to kill of this monster? While it would be spread out by the water, it would also be diluted, not to mention I had no idea where this water might go. This was groundwater, so I could potentially be poisioning one of Muspell's biggest water resources...

It didn't matter this time. If Nifl was conquered, I could use the abundant snow and its rivers to our advantage, and then we wouldn't have a shortage of water. Anyway...this beast was to die by my hand.

I then looked at the body of water. Considering the beast's size...the best chance I had was to allow it to consume the whole thing. However...at this range, I had a chance of getting eaten myself as well...not to mention I had no idea what other creatures may reside in this body of water besides the Kraken itself.

Looking at Cyclonus, I put a hand on his snout. "Want to go crazy, boy?" he nodded, apparently understanding me. I looked at Laegjarn. "Alright...I have a plan. It's crazy alright, but right now, I can't think of any other plans."

Well, throwing it into the beast's mouth was one plan, but now it was upright, it's mouth no longer facing us. Instead, its head was bobbing up, resembling an angry Cthulhu, though instead of arms and legs, it had a huge amount of tentacles, and its "beard" was tentacles as well...it was like a giant water spider.

Laegjarn bit her lip. "You're crazy, Jormungandr." I grinned. "Well, sometimes playing it safe doesn't cut it all out for me. I prefer playing it safe...but when you just can't play it safe...then find the craziest plan ever."

She shook her head. "Even if I don't know it, I have a feeling I might regret this." I shrugged. "Whether if you regret it or not, we're still going through this, unless if you got a better plan."

Waving her hand, she motioned me to carry on. I nodded, and started. "Basically, on Cyclonus, we get to the top of the carven. With the size and length of its tentacles, it'll have to turn itself over for its tentacles to reach the top of the carven, if I'm not mistaken. Also, we have to light up our area, so that it'll be alerted to our location."

Frowning at me for a second, she then understood. "So you intend to let it get close enough for a good throw...for the poison to do its work." I nodded. "We only got one chance for this. It's do or die."

She patted Cyclonus, and got upon him. "This is the craziest and most irrational of your plans, Kyren..." I nodded. "Yep. But when my opponent is this gigantic and possibly insane beast...it doesn't leave me with too many options."

Jumping on the majestic wyvern, I took the container out of my sack. It was a bloody red, and was still steaming with the toxicity. Looking at it, I noticed that the glass was slightly thinner. "We've go no time to prepare. The poison's eating through the glass."

With a spur on the reins, Cyclonus took flight, shooting for the ceiling. I yelled, "Vulcanus!" and lit up my area with my armor's blue fire, giving me a better sight in the dark.

Fire pouring out of his mouth, Cyclonus's fire began rampaging across the ceiling, as he went rested upon the ceiling, completely upside-down. I kept my feet tucked in the stirrups, using them to my advantage in order to not fall down to my water-and messy doom.

The tentacles shot up to the ceiling, trying to avoid the fire around Cyclonus, as they started to pull the main body upwards. To my slight surprise, besides its tentacles, head, mouth, and these horrifying gigantic pair of red eyes that glared daggers at me, there were no other significant body parts.

Pulling itself up, I waited for the right moment. It hadn't flipped its upper body yet to eat us...but what if it meant to crush us?...that would be problematic, as I wouldn't expect myself to directly throw the container up its throat. Laegjarn could...but then, she was keeping Cyclonus calm, so she was out of the question.

To my relief, the main body flipped itself, revealing that gigantic mouth, full of ugly, serrated teeth. I could smell fish...Naga, that was disgusting. It was like rotten fish, but as I looked closely, it resembled...feces. Wait..its feces smelled like fish...gah, I didn't want to think about it.

I snapped back, trying to not get distracted by its biology. Now...I almost felt regret for making the decision of killing such a creature...ah, never mind. I've done worse.

As I released the container, the Kraken jolted, causing the whole carven to shake. My hands fumbled around with the container, causing it to lose its trajectory. My eyes widened, as the jar started to fall...in another angle that I hadn't meant for it to fall in.

Trying desperately to reach for it, and direct it to not let it end up falling into the water, and instead its mouth, my fingers made contact with the covering of the container...only for it to slip off, much to my horror and dismay.

Crap...I was going to die here...wasn't I?...

* * *

 **Omake:**

Kyren looked at the three unconscious guys. "So...what do you think we should do, Kenny?" Kenny had a sh*t eating grin on his face. "I have an idea." he kicked one of them, and he woke up. "Wake your a** up!"

Kyren glared at him. "Language!" Kenny simply ignored him, and the mugger looked around. "What just ha-" Kenny slammed his foot down, and knocked the air out of him, knocking him out again.

"Wake up!"

"What ha-"

And then Kenny jumped on him, doing the same thing over and over again. Kyren sighed. "Yeah, yeah...they're decent chew toys." Kenny stopped, after a few minutes of beating them up. "Video games can't compare to this!"

I didn't care too much, and then I heard bit of rolling. I whirled around, and looked at Kenny, who had thrown him into a trash can, waking him up. "What the heck, Kenny?!"

One of the gangsters popped up. "Holy sh*t! Who the f*ck taught you boys how to be like this?! You have permanently altered my spine! Why did God give you dinosaur-man strength? Geez, that's f*cking wrong! Boys your age and size and at this time should be masturbating or whatever disgusting sh*t you teenagers do! I can't believe what kind of drugs you took in order to do this!"

Kenny kicked him back into the trash can. "Does working out everyday mean drugs?"

"By the Trump Walls, you must have gotten an addiction to working out! You only seem to be like 16, and you look like Chris Evans just came out of the transformation decoration device! What kind of drug makes you continuously work out until your healthy?!"

"Granpda." Kenny plainly said.

"Sweet walls of Grandpa Trump! Your grandpa looks like he's been going hobo for decades straight! Look at his hair, he looks like he tried to transform into the Hulk, but it only worked on the hair and didn't even change the color-" he yelled, pointing at Kyren, which happened to be a huge mistake.

"Shut up!" Kenny yelled, and slammed the dumpster cap, knocking him out again. "And this time, I'm not waking you up."

* * *

 **thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to give me constructive criticism!**

 **Answers to your review- oh wait, never mind. The last one didn't get reviews, so no. But anyway, I hope you had a good time, so until I post again!**


	7. Switcharoo

"Hyaa!" was the next thing I heard, after the thought of dying crossed my mind. To my shock and horror, I saw Laegjarn springing down from Cyclonus, reaching for the bottle of poison.

"No, Laegjarn! You'll-" my yells were drowned out by Cyclonus's shrieks of surprise and urgency, as it began to dive down to catch his master. Laegjarn flipped herself in the air, and then faced Cyclonus, as her left hand caught the bottle of poison.

Wagging her finger, Cyclonus screeched to a halt in mid-air at the signal, giving me a horrific jolt. I grabbed my leg instinctively, as the ordeal of such a sudden stop was quite painful.

"Gah...Laegjarn!" I yelled, as she practically dove into the Kraken's mouth. As much as I wanted to look away, I found that I couldn't. I didn't know why, but I just couldn't pull my eyes off the horror that was going to happen before me.

I noticed her pulling her arm back, as if she was going to throw it...wait. That was it. She had a plan. A risky one, but she had the athletic ability and the strength to do it, or at least the confidence to do so.

At that moment, everything seemed to go in slow motion. I reached for my left leg as it felt the effects of the violent jolting, and my head snapped back to watch Laegjarn do her work. Cyclonus let out another screech, and I instinctively covered my ears, as the sound was defeating.

As she fell, Laegjarn threw the bottle in, and drew her iron sword out, and threw it at the bottle. The iron sword traveled faster than the glass bottle, and with a crack and the beautiful sound of shattering, the fluids , every single drop, entered the Kraken's open and greedy maw.

Laegjarn then caught onto one of the tentacles, as I looked up at the ceiling. The tentacles were slowly losing their grip, as the gigantic monstrosity's life began to fade away into the hell it may or may not deserve, but was received anyway.

Holding onto the tentacles, Laegjarn used her own body to swing herself around multiple times like a monkey bar, but this time she did it all the way, like an experienced gymnast, and launched herself into the air 30 feet above, and allowed Cyclonus to catch her.

As I looked at the Kraken, it only teetering onto the edge of life by a few of its tentacles, I could see its eyes, not yet submerged in the water, brimming with hatred. Its mouth opened, and it started to speak, much to my surprise. "...you're not even Muspellian...and you still can devise such a plan to defeat me?...I'll be damned."

With a quick motion of my hands, I signaled Cyclonus to lower me down to the monster. "You know that I'm no Muspellian...how? I would like to know why before you expire."

It replied in a poor attempt to intimidate me, "You don't smell like one of them...what a weakling." I looked at it with contempt, and kicked its eye, stirring up a rumble.

"Weakling...I wouldn't say that it isn't inaccurate, though that doesn't mean I need to willingly associate myself with that word." I said to it, and bent down, looking it straight in its dying eye.

"In fact...in this case, I pride myself in it. The great Kraken, taken down by a little idea a weakling had." "For the record, I threw it in!" "Laegjarn, it was my idea." "...fine."

The kraken growled at me. "...I was told that I would never be killed by combat. I thought this meant I was invincible...so this is what he meant when he said these words." I knelt down, as a sort of respect towards the one that had fell by my hand.

"And who is this person?" "...someone whom you wouldn't believe exists...one even higher than Naga herself." I raised my eyebrows. A being higher than Naga herself? Well...that was probable. "Unfortunately...I happen to believe you. Would you mind telling me?"

"My creator." the kraken chuckled, then started to sink into the water as more of its tentacles disconnected. "Stand against him, and I can guarantee that you will be struck down."

Ignoring it, I glanced at Laegjarn, who had been caught by Cyclonus. "Are you feeling alright?" She nodded ."...for now, I'm alright. However, we still have to deal with the miscalculated mission. I nodded.

The Kraken let out one last groan, and its tentacles disconnected from the ceiling, falling to the murky waters below. As Cyclonus began to take flight, I looked down below, a huge mistake.

It's glowing red eye glared right at me, dead but still, very, very angry. No...angry wasn't the word to describe it. The monster was utterly enraged, even in death. Glancing at it, I felt its eyes bore into me, starting to lose my consciousness as my eyelids drooped, and my weight shifted to the side.

I dully recognized that I was about to fall, but it didn't matter to me. Laegjarn turned to me, yelling at me to get a hold of myself, but it seemed so slow. Everything around me seemed slow, as I fell under and everything went black for me.

* * *

Waking up on the dark, damp floor, I scratched my head. "...where am I?" two shadowy figures were around me, obviously Cyclonus and Laegjarn. "So...what do we do now?"

Laegjarn helped me up, as she got onto Cyclonus. "There's a door, but neither of us could open it." I frowned, and placed my hand on the door. Pushing on it hard, I then decided to pull the handle.

Neither of these worked. By this time, I wasn't surprised anymore. Magic was secondary nature by now, something that had replaced technology in this world. I treated magic like technology, as if science of my time would be regarded by people of medieval ages as magic, then one could regard magic here as some sort of technology as well, but with a completely different foundation.

"Did you try burning it down?" I asked. Cyclonus nodded, and then shook his head sadly to point out it didn't work and that he was exhausted. I crossed my arms. "Alright...I should be able to think a way out of this. I've always done so."

Noticing some sort of inscription on the wall, I recognized it as my mother language. "如何進口，以沖為意圖，就是亡，需以德追求。" I frowned. While I was fluent in my own language, I had a slight bit of trouble deciphering what it meant, as it resembled more of an older style.

Luckily, I knew how my language was used to be written from about a century ago, unlike the new style that most people used. I just needed to look a bit closer, and then I would understand it. Would I ever know why? Maybe not, and now wasn't the time to know why either.

"So...to enter, if someone rushes as his intention, will only result in death, but needs to chase after virtues?" I thought to myself. What did this mean?...to rush...was also to be hasty.

However...were we hasty? Not exactly. In fact, we even got curb-stomped by a dragon just for a lack of desire to finish things quickly, so it couldn't mean hastiness. Maybe...if we rushed to open the door, then...maybe...

I rushed towards the door, and pushed as quickly as I could. All I got was an accidental stumble into the door, and a bump on my head later on. I rubbed it, glaring at the embarrassing mark.

Laegjarn walked to the door. "So one must have virtues..." she began bowing to the door. "Oh, mighty door, please open your well-made and designed boards of fame!" Nothing happened. I was tempted to laugh, but as I didn't do any better, who was I to judge?

Cyclonus then decided to pull on the door, hard. As hard as he tried, unsurprisingly, he didn't have any effect. I wondered what these words really meant. Virtues were important to me alright, but what was the most important thing of all?

I remembered an excerpt from some book I had read, and that the three main important traits were faith, hope, and love. The most important was love...but I couldn't possibly expect to love a door, eh?

Even if the door was quite attractive, I wondered if I would be attracted to such a thing, especially with my messed up love experience. Yeah...maybe love wasn't the answer this time.

Virtues...were realtated to chivalry and honor. I thought to myself. Did I have a sense of honor? It would be wrong to say that I had a sense of honor, as that would only prove that I wasn't honorable and just a selfish narcissist.

However...I reminisced back to knights of medieval times. Their code of chivalry was to protect those who could not. Aside from being able to commit violence, they also had to be gentle at the same time.

I wondered if it was the case this time. Putting my hand on the door, I slowly pressed the door handle down. It didn't work, much to my frustration. "Wait...frustration...that's it!"

Thinking to myself, a perfect knight was patient with loved ones, no matter what transgressions they had done. I needed to be forgiving, to not break down in frustration. "Let's try again." I said to myself, and placed my hand on the handle.

This time, instead of just going slow, I found myself going as slow as the servant/murderer in the tell-tale-heart, written by Edgar Allen Poe. An hour later, the door was finally open. Laegjarn got up. "By the flame dragon himself...you went through all that?" I nodded, tired of kneeling in the same spot for an hour.

"You know...it really takes a lot of willpower to do this." I said, as I got up, and prepared to enter. As I entered, an arrow came out of nowhere, and Laegjarn pulled me out of its way. "It's full of traps."

I shook my head. "so not only should one have the patience to do such a task, but also must have the strength and courage to brave such a passageway...this is surely quite a challenge."

I threw a rock, and then arrows flew around. I threw more rocks, and more arrows came out. Laegjarn frowned. "What's your plan this time?" I smiled. Wait and see." As arrows accumulated, I looked around, and took Vulcanus off.

A few more arrows buried themselves in the armor, and I yelled, "Vulcanus!" the armor lit up, and revealed all of the contents inside. Laegjarn frowned. "...now what? Just because we've lit up the place doesn't mean we can safely dodge all of them. There are dozens of automatic draconic mouths with bows in them around...waiting to kill us all."

I nodded. "that's it. Because they're holes...it's a perfect chance to abuse that fact." Flinging my dagger up, it hit a mouth from above, and knocked it down. I turned to her. "There. Get the bow over there."

A few minutes later, with Cyclones assisting her, LAegjarn came down with he bow. I took the arrows. "There are many of holes, but we have more than enough arrows to block them all up."

Laegjarn nodded. "so...you plan for me to shoot the arrows into the holes, plugging them up and rendering them unable to shoot anymore, correct?" I nodded. "Precisely. As we haven't entered yet, we should be still safe, and you can snipe from afar."

Before she shot an arrow, she frowned. "How did you come up with this plan?" I crossed my arms. "Simple. As there were whistles of arrows, I immediately knew that there were multiple of them, and that even if one reloaded quite fast, it could never fire more than 1 arrow at the same time."

I paused for a second. "And then, as I saw in the dark, each arrow would always follow another, meant that these were machines, not monsters. However...to be sure...I had to use my armor to light it up. And to my surprise, while the arrows fired at us were going towards us, when I threw the stone, only the side arrows were fired, and there were no arrows that came from the side, which meant either the ones vertical to us were meant to fire only when we entered, and the ones on the side were only meant for anybody who decided to run in. However, I also know that people are least expecting an attack from above, so I looked up, and found my solution. These holes seem to be at least twice as large an arrow itself, but from the way the feathers are ruffled, it seems that the little tunnel gets smaller to bigger. Any arrow fired at the holes will proceed to plug them up, rendering them useless."

I pointed at the entire area. "This entire thing was an elaborate equation. Most may think this a test of endurance, but in fact, this is a test of wits." I stared at various armored forms, littered with arrows poking out. They had been foolish enough to think that this was a test on endurance...in fact, the more endurance one had, the more likely he or she was going to fall.

As it was stereotypical for defense-oriented units to have lower than average speed as well as being slow at walking, they wouldn't even survive. Each of these mechanisms had a strength of 50, and were equipped with death blow, attack+3 for their sacred seals, and were all classified as armor units, with a skill that I had never seen before: Bold Fighter 3.

The skill description claimed that If unit initiates combat, unit makes a guaranteed follow-up attack. Grants Special cooldown charge +1 per attack. This was a skill...that was terrifying. Good thing that none of the crossbows were really defense-heavy, but they all had extremely high resistance, which discouraged magic users from attacking them directly...and they all had glacies.

Every shot they hit would be like heavy blade, and a glacies hit...would be ironically, bloody hell. If Laegjarn was a calvary unit, she may have a chance to burst through...but I couldn't test it out now, and no calvary unit could ever have stats like hers.

Laegjarn pointed the crossbow at one of the holes, all of them decorated with sculptures of beasts' heads. She fired off, each to them striking home. As she finished firing, she slung it on her shoulder. "Alright...we got this down."

I nodded. "Alright, let's go." Rushing through the hallway, I looked at the next door. "...now..stand back...I've got this." using the same method, I decided to open it very, very slowly...to no avail.

"...fine." I kicked it, and it didn't work. Cyclonus blew fire at the door, and none of it worked. I shook my head. "Now what?" Slipping a stick under the door, I tried to us it as a lever...only for it to break.

Sighing, Laegjarn just opened it naturally. I just stared. It was right under my nose for the entire time. "...well...I have nothing to say in this situation." As I walked in, the entire room lit up, revealing a throne room, along with various treasures.

I was impressed at this display of weapons. Not even the chancellor himself in my world had decorated his council with such intricate means. Laegjarn looked at a sword, which was shaking slightly.

"...oh?" she said, as she took the weapon. I stopped her. "Wait, Laegjarn...you know very well that if you're not deemed worthy, you could be burnt up by divine fire...are you sure you want to do this?"

She bit her lip, then nodded. "I've made my choice. Besides...I have little to nothing to lose." she took the sword called as Níu, and fire started to crawl around her. "...what?...what is this?"

A blinding light filled the room, as it emitted from her body. She let out a yell, as she swung the sword towards thin air, a wave of energy emitting from the sword. She held the sword in her hands, amazed by its power.

I looked at the sword, and its description. Grants Spd+3. Adds 50% of total bonuses on foe to unit's Atk/Spd/Def/Res during combat. I wondered...so it was only during combat...this meant she wouldn't be able to test it out immediately.

Laegjarn was a slight bit disappointed by the length of the legendary weapon. It was the length of a gladius, only about three feet long, a short sword. She preferred longswords instead, but she swung it around. It was light enough.

Looking around, I saw two daggers. As I looked at the carvings on the pedestal, it wrote, Rahab and Leviathan. We fight wars with our powers, not our blades. I wondered what that meant, and inspected the two daggers.

Rahab Mt 14: Targets the higher of foe's defenses. any allies within 4 spaces will receive this effect: During combat, subtracts 50% of total bonuses on foe to foe's base attack/spd/def/res. If unit attacked, enemies within 4 spaces receive -7 to def/res.

Leviathan Mt 14: Targets the higher of foe's defenses. Any allies within gain this effect: During combat, adds unit's total bonuses onto damage dealt. If unit attacked, enemies within 4 spaces receive -7 to def/res.

I looked at the twin daggers. Obviously, they were meant for supporting, not fighting. I knew that I probably shouldn't touch them...but I couldn't help myself. These two weapons piqued me to no end, and I imagined that I absolutely must touch them.

As my hand strayed to the first dagger, Rahab, I felt a warmth growing inside my hand and where I touched the dagger. Ignoring it, I slowly picked it up, and the second one as well.

The two daggers in my hands were both beautiful...I almost felt like Jaffar, the angel of death himself. Peering down, I noticed Rahab and Leviathan's intricate designs.

Rahab consisted of a white curved blade of about a foot long, with the mark of Naga carved at its hilt. Its hilt was straight for most of its own body, but at the pommel, it was spiked. I made a mental note to keep that away from my wrist.

Leviathan on the other hand, was a straight blade of white, which was also a foot long. It had a serrated edge at the bottom of the blade, and strange markings, probably in ancient Muspellian, carved into the blade itself. Its hilt was relatively normal compared to Rahab, but it had some sort of curve to it, as if it was completely the opposite of Rahab.

Rahab had a decorated hilt, while Leviathan had a decorated blade. Rahab had a straight hilt, however, while Leviathan had a straight blade, and were curved vice versa. The creator of these weapons must have had this in mind.

A bright light began to surround me, and I felt warmth flow through my veins, and then explode. Not only did it give a physical representation of exploding without much harm, but it also gave me an explosion in terms of mentality. Information flooded into my mind, and I held my head as I tried to take it all in.

A deep voice...no, two deep voices, resounded within my head, the result of every single piece of information that was forced into my mind, gathering. While they were both deep, with a bit of focus, I could tell that they were different even though they spoke with perfect conjunction.

"You dare to wield me, the twin daggers of destruction?" I replied, "Yes." The voices roared at me, "What is it that you desire? Power? Money? Fame?" I nodded. "I suppose...while I wouldn't say that I desire these, I do recognize them as necessary factors to my one true goal."

"Oh? You seem to be a slight bit different. Every wielder who has come to me has denied these, but yet you have accepted them with little dissonance." I replied, "Is it necessarily evil, though? Just because I need power, money, and fame to accomplish my goal, doesn't necessarily mark me as an evil person."

"You seem so sure of yourself, young one." I smirked at their remark. "Of course I am. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have headed here in the first place." the voice responded, "Well well...I will have fun with you."

I narrowed my eyebrows mentally. "Have fun with me? You seem to be mistaken." I could feel a bit of discomfort, or a bit of animosity in the weapons. I said, "If you seriously wish to control me, I don't believe you could do so."

"So confident of yourself? You aren't even Muspellian." the voices retorted. I submissively said at first, "Fair point." then I went for a more aggressive approach. "However, the only advantage Muspellians have over me is that they're much stronger than I am physically. What do you know about mentality?"

"...then let us see what you have experienced." I could feel them diving into the depths of my mind, and then after a few minutes, they resurfaced. "You...you've gone too far to stop."

I nodded. "And that's the way it is. So...shall you join me?" If not, I was ready to force them into submission. I didn't know how, but I knew that I could find a way.

"...very well."

Flashing back into reality, I gripped the two daggers. Slashing the air, I threw Leviathan at a statue, only for it to bounce off harmlessly. Shaking my head, I allowed Leviathan to fly back into my grasp.

Glancing at the other weapons, I remembered that I had something to try. "Laegjarn, where's my bag?" Laegjarn took it off Cyclonus. "Here...what do you intend to do?"

I looked at the relics. "I plan to take them back to the capital, so that nobody else will have to go through the hell of getting these weapons. In fact...it's at this time where we need them the most."

Laegjarn nodded, and then used Niu to lift the weapons from their placements, and dumped them into the bag. Tying it up, she put the sack of weapons onto Cyclonus, and then headed to the next door.

I glared at the door, as my experience with doors had left me having a sort of hostility towards the mechanism itself. This time, Cyclonus put his paw on it, and opened it without any effort.

Shaking my head, I frowned as I heard a bunch rumblings. Laegjarn got onto Cyclonus. "Jotunns... again?" However, what that came was no group of jotunns. Instead, they were corpse-liked, animated, and ghostly.

I looked at their stats, and classes. They were decent warriors, their speed in the high 30s, as well as their defense being in the high thirties as well, and their attack all being in the low 50s. To my dismay, each and every one of them were calvary, and had some sort of calvary buffing skill.

Laegjarn drew Níu. "Draugrs...undead creatures..." she shook her head. "I gotta kill them all. Don't try to help this time, Kyren." I looked at them, and sheathed my daggers as per her wish.

She raced towards the Draugrs, and drew out Niu, the black blade shining in the dark of the cave. As I noticed their buffs, I frowned as they dealt little to no damage against Laegjarn.

the first Draugr, a buffed calvary sword, had fifty six attack with buffs, as well as thirty six defense, and forty speed. I bit my lip, thinking that this would be a tough one for Laegjarn, even though she was using Aether and heavy blade in this situation.

The Draugr stabbed Laegjarn, and according to my statistics perception, she only lost 5 hit points...I wondered why. Then a sudden realization struck me. Níu increased all her stats by 50% of her opponent's total bonuses. So instead...she had gotten a +12 to every single one of her stats in this situation, and was now significantly stronger than she seemed.

As with her 63 attack ton 36 attack, she dealt 27 damage to the surprised Draugr. She then followed up with another blow of her own, ending the undead's miserable life. I myself was in fact, shocked to see the Draugr's expression of surprise, as I had thought of them to be emotionless animations of some twisted evil.

As the next one came by, a lance cavalier, charged forward. Before it could even land a hit, Laegjarn had already wrenched the Draugr's form off his horse, and then executed him swiftly.

The bow cavalier Draugr pointed its arrow at Laegjarn, and despite my yells at her to get away quickly, she stayed put.

It hit her hard, reducing her HP from 47 to 16. I winced. Even 50 attack shouldn't have done that much, according to my calculations, as when he attacked, her defense was increased from 41 to 53...wait, he had death blow. That explained a lot...luckily, he was nowhere fast enough to hit her twice.

Well, if not for her weapon, he would have doubled her, with his speed-refined slaying blow, as well as his numerous buffs that shot his speed up to 43, and the darting blow that went along with his set of skills.

The Draugr was truly a deadly opponent, but now it was her turn. Laegjarn pointed her weapon at the Draugr. "No pity!" she yelled, as she spurred Cyclonus onward.

Cyclonus let out a roar, and sprung forward as Laegjarn activated Venegance, slashed the Draugr's neck, removing it from its body. The last Draugr let out an ear-piercing shriek, as it sprung towards me instead.

I raised my hands in a futile effort to block the slaying ax that would most certainly kill me in this situation, until a slice was heard. I moved to the side a bit, as the Draugr and its formerly undead horse kept flying in its destined direction, splitting into two vertical halves as soon as it hit the ground.

Laegjarn held Niu, and twirled it around before sheathing it. "I like it. Hm..." she looked at it. "So the stronger my opponent tries to be, the stronger I will get." she looked at the dead bodies of the Draugrs. "Let's get back to Muspell."

* * *

Laevatein's eyes widened as she looked at the blade...also known as Laevatein. "Right, i remember! Daddy named me after that legendary blade! I wanna use it!" Well...that was WHAT most would expect. What that really came out was a dull, "Oh." I wasn't really that surprised though. Even though she was 5 stars by now and had the potential to wield it, she didn't even seem excited.

Heading out of the room, I waved. "See you later." As soon as I closed the door, I could hear squeals of excitement and yells of "Thank you, onee-chan!" Yeah...I suppose that was her personality when dealing with people.

When it wasn't her sister, she was often dull and uncaring, though she would occasionally open up to those who knew her well enough. However...when it was Laegjarn, her entire attitude was completely different.

A pillow burst out of the door, clobbering me in the head and sending me onto the ground. "Gah...I've got to get away." I sighed, as I took off, running with the rest of the weapons on my back.

Heading to the throne room, I opened the doors and bowed. "O king, live forever!" I called out as a form of respect. Normally I wouldn't do this when it was only Surtr around, but since I hadn't had the time to see who was around, I just did it anyway.

Surtr let out a hearty welcoming laugh. "Why, it's good to see you, Jormugandr. What have you come for?" I carried the sack of weapons to the center of the throne room.

"I have retrieved the weapons from their resting place in the Holy temple of Muspell. I believe that they will be capable of good use." I said, throwing the cloth aside to reveal the regalia of old.

The council edged forward to see the sacred treasures, a sight to behold. Surtr frowned. "Jormugandr, you-" "Yes, I have. Two weapons of their own choosing are now with me, the twin daggers Rahab and Leviathan."

The two daggers slipped out of my sleeves, and dropped into my hands as I fastened my grip upon them. "Well...gentlemen, I wouldn't go too close if I were you. If you're unworthy...there's a chance you could get burnt to death. So...I believe that I should choose whom."

Looking at Surtr's own weapon, Simara, I knew that there was another axe in there somewhere...what was it called again? I suppose that I would have to give them to the most skilled soldiers...no, not just the most skilled soldiers, the ones who were most intelligent combative-wise.

I looked at the council. "Do you have a list of soldiers who have the highest kill count, or the highest performance in battle?" One of them stood up. "Here you go, Jormungandr."

Looking at the list, I clenched my fist in rage. Besides Laevatein and Laegjarn, one of ones with the highest performances was Loki. That dratted woman...If going by combative skill and intelligence, I would have to give a weapon to her...hopefully there wasn't a staff around.

To my dismay, I then remembered there was a legendary staff, and only one! I desperately wanted to scream in rage, but decided to restrain myself. So...if by going with battle performances, at least two legendary weapons from the pile would be given away.

Using my statistics-vision power of the Briedabilik, I looked at Thökk. The description said: Damage dealt by this skill is calculated in the same fashion as non-staff weapon types. At start of turn, if foe's HP ≤ unit's HP+3 and foe is in cardinal direction and uses bow, dagger, magic, or staff, foe cannot move more than 1 space through its action.

Noticing that Loki was part of the council now, I looked at her statistics. She had 50 HP...I suppose that was enough to suffice for these units. Most ranged units at most had their HP nearing the the low 40s.

Biting my lip, I took my gloves, and then handed Thökk to Loki. "Here, accept this staff." She giggled a little. "Turns out you're still a bit of a sweetie at times." I responded, "As much as I don't like it, you're the one who's best suited to wield this."

As I glanced at the next weapon, I noticed it's name and description. Byleistr: At start of an odd-numbered turn, boosts Attack, Speed, Defense and Resistance of user and adjacent allies by +4 each for the duration of the turn. (granted even if there are no adjacent allies)

Granting it to Helbindi, I smiled as I gave it to him. "Use it to protect your family well, Helbindi." He spat. "Wha-what are you talking about? Screw my family! Wait, I didn't mean it like that, I meant-gah, shut up."

* * *

 **(Now, Kenny's POV)**

11/18/17

I woke up in my bedroom in Askr, yawning. Besides me was a girl...wait, a girl?! Pulling myself up as fast as I could, I realized it was Camilla. I yelled, "Camilla, haven't I told you enough?! I don't need a big sister, especially when you're way too sexy to be my sister for my own good!"

Camilla then patted my head, and hugged me. "But you're just so cute..." I pushed myself away, stumbling off the bed. "For f*ck's sake, I'm not even entirely through with puberty! You can't expect me to consider this normal! Where are my pants?!"

The purple-haired beauty rubbed herself on my shoulder, agitating me even more. "哇操，媽的婊子離我遠點！(Gya, begone th*t!)" I burst out of my bed, and pointed Briedabilik at her, deciding to use the power of the Briedabilik to my advantage.

"You who would dare to desecrate the land of the summoner's bed! With my advent, I, Fenris Wei Askr, lay waste with the Briedabilik and expel thy vast defilement! **SUMMON!** " I yelled dramatically, while aiming Briedabilik at her. As a summoner, my name was Fenris, a name that was meant to strike fear into the hearts of Embla.

Looking at the options, I chose the redeem option, to summon without orbs. There was one green orb that caught my twitching eye, and I mentally chose it with Briedabilik. Pulling the trigger, a green hero burst out of the Briedabilik...

"BWAHAHAHHAHAHAAAA!" a familiar voice resounded in the room as the hero burst out, knocking Camilla out of the window and himself in the process. I nearly screamed in rage, as I saw that it was Bartre once more. It was a good thing that he had knocked Camilla out...

Slamming the door, I stomped into my bathroom, getting my white cloak, and pulling my pants on. I hoped that she hadn't done anything weird while I was sleeping. It was the weekends, and I hadn't came back to Askr for what seemed like forever, though in my mind I knew it was actually just 3 days.

Still, there were sightings of 4 heroes...who hadn't even strayed from their position for 3 days. They had just stayed at their position, waiting even though they had no other visible supplies.

I sighed as I read the scroll given to me by Alfonse. It almost seemed like they were waiting to be defeated. Even though we were in a war against Embla, the entire premise at times seemed pretty boring at times.

Embla hardly ever really attacked, and even when they attacked, it hardly seemed like they were really fighting this war. Sometimes...I just wished that there could be some sort of real adventure, something exciting that could happen.

As I finished dinner, I noticed the other heroes chatting, probably gossiping. Ignoring them, I headed to the stables to get my horse. As a summoner, I had to make sure that I could at least run away easily if things turned out wrong.

Even though I was quite good at fighting back in my world, in here, it seemed like everybody was an asgardian. My punches could barely hurt Lucius, who had the lowest of defenses, so I was by no means a physical fighter.

Magic, on the other hand, was quite easy for me to learn. It all consisted of strange incantations, very much like coding for me. Therefore, it was determined that I naturally had talent for magic.

When one put magic and a horse together, that way, I had become formidable in battle in my own right, though personally I did not like going on the front lines. As a normal human from earth, I could die to any decent attack, no matter whether if it was magic or physical, so usually I only made a few attacks with my blarblade+ tome.

Fenris: Victory's Maw

Level: 40

Weapon: Gronnblade+ (You did your best, Nino)

HP:

Atk: 28

Spd: 34

Def: 10

Res: 8

Movement Skill: Reposition (Please accept my forgiveness, Selena- Baka! Who the heck told you to sacrifice me?!)

Special: moon bow

A Slot Skill: Darting blow 3

B Slot Skill: Desperation

C Slot Skill: Hone Calvary

Seal: speed+3

I hadn't ever died in this world, and I didn't know whether if the Briedabilik would revive me or not. but so far, I was unwilling to try to see if I really would die permanently, or simply just be unconsciously revived by the Briedabilik.

As to my knowledge, my brother wasn't summoned to this Askr, unlike his best friend, Kiran. We were all summoned to Askr somewhere during February, where we were introduced to the battle of two kingdoms.

At first I wondered why we couldn't serve Embla, as I thought that I could always pick a side. Then, a bunch of Emblain soldiers tried to kill me because I was talking to Anna, trying to grasp the ridiculousness of the situation, so I decided to go with Askr.

After exploring the world of Zenith and other worlds such as the world of Mystery, and the world of awakening which was somewhat similar to Mystery, and various other worlds, my brother r realized that I had been gone for most of the weekends, and asked me if I was caught up in this "being summoned into another world  
fad.

In fact, I was, I admitted to him. but as it was entirely random and I knew not how to get him to be a summoner, he didn't care much and probably forgot quite quickly.

Kiran, my brother's best friend, was and is also a summoner. Occasionally I would jump to his world, but as ours were pretty much the same, I decided that world-jumping to other summoners' reals just wasn't worth it, unless if it was conquering them.

Taking a few units to the tempest trials, I lazily gave orders as they kept on fighting to the final room, where the boss was Ike. Not normal Ike, Brave Ike. It wasn't hard to double him, but it wasn't like anybody would get much out of that if they attacked him consecutively due to that blasted Urvan.

As the first team defeated Ike and the other units, I motioned them to take a break. all these tempest trials and storms...were rather boring at times. sure, the more I fought, the more treasures the storms of the tempest would bring me. But using the same strategy over and over again, basically not dying, was old.

Part of me just wished for an adventure, a real battle.

"Mayday, MAYDAY! EMBLAIN TROOPS HAVE ATTACKED THE MAIN FORT OF ASKR! SUMMONER FENRIS, YOU MUST HEAD TO THE MAIN FORT OF ASKR!" My eyes widened.

I hadn't expected the Emblains to be so bold to attack the main for of Askr itself...but with most of its population being obese royals who did nothing, I suppose that would be optimal anyway. A part of me asked myself, "Why did I wish for this adventure?"

* * *

 **Omake** :

Loki grinned as she got the staff. "My my, Jormungandr...you've give n me a real y LONG staff." Kyren frowned. "Er...Loki...that's not for...you know." he turned away.

"What? Sex? Of course not! Do you seriously think that ill of me, Jormungandr?" Kyren raised an eyebrow, looked at her straight in the eyes, and replied, "Your outfit suggests otherwise."

Loki hit him with the staff. "I'm still stronger than you, you know!" "Ow! You don't have to rub it in..." Kyren grumbled as he was hit with the staff.

Surtr rumbled to Loki, "Loki...show us what Thökk can do." Loki bowed. "Of course, milord." she held it up in the air, and a few meters away, a few wounded soldiers were healed from afar.

Loki then cast a spell, and Kyren found that he could barely move at all. "Loki..what is this madness?!" he yelled, as he waved his dagger in the air, threatening her to let him.

Loki then waited for a few seconds, allowing the effects to wear off. Kyren stumbled, obviously annoyed but still grudgingly in awe. The council looked at her, waiting for her to do something.

Loki then placed the pole on the ground, and spun around it while lifting her leg up.

Kyren's eyes widened, and he started to crawl out of the setting. "Damnit...pole dancing..." he groaned as he was hit with the effect of Thökk once more, unable to move freely.


	8. Alloweth the Hurlyburly Beginneth!

I spurred my horse forward. "Charr!" I yelled as I stirred the reins up, the horse galloping forwards towards the main forte. I personally had no care towards the screams of heroes who were fighting (and failing against) the Emblans, as I could revive them every once in a while.

However, I personally was more concerned about the citizens inside...meh, with the Emblains focusing on my own heroes, they would be fine. While they definitely had the ability to feel pain...it really didn't matter in this case, as they could die for all I cared, being able to be revived by my own will.

Glancing at my 4 loyal cavaliers, they all awaited orders. While I was capable of combat, they could perform far better than I could, though luckily for me, they also provided the buffs to keep me capable of at least helping out.

They consisted of Eldigan, Elise, Cecilia, and Camus. While Xander was certainly a fair choice, his low speed and Eldigan's overall higher damage output did not do him many favors, especially when Camus could fulfill his role better at times.

Goading my horse to a stop, I straightened myself to get a clear view of what was happening. Veronica...apparently she was actually quite a decent strategist when she put her mind to it, without Xander and Bruno to constantly pamper her.

"Sir, what do we do?" Eldigan asked me. "Shall we rush them?" I shook my head. "Nay. I have another plan for this. We wait." Cecilia protested, "But sir, they will die if this keeps going dow-"

"That is exactly the point, Cecilia. I intend them to all die." "But sir, if we go in now, we may be able to save the-" I shook my head. "Nay. If we rush in now, the tide will be extremely hard to turn."

I watched as my own forces were slaughtered by the Emblans. There were cries of "Summoner, we need you" and "Why are we so incompetent without the summoner" and "we're Dr. Watson and he's Sherlock Holmes!"

Noticing that they were down to the last forces, I nodded. "Alright, let's go." Galloping towards the side of the army, I used one of the oldest tricks in the book: to flank them.

"Oh, summoner...I've completely decimated your forces. Have you come to join them?" Veronica spoke, preparing to blast me with magic. I considered retaliating, but then realized that I was inherently at a disadvantage with my offensive skills and my blue color as well. Even with the +24 damage boost, it wouldn't make much of a difference if I attacked her.

"Of course not. Have they all died?" as if on cue, Veronica blasted Reinhardt into dust. "There we go." Holding up Briedabilik, I prepared to unleash my army...right on top of hers.

Veronica screamed, "Get that blasted summoner!" Multituide of axe cavaliers charged, only to be trampled by a furious Eldigan. "Yield of Perish!" he yelled, as he took down an axe cavalier.

Another charged towards me, only to be taken out by a bunch of ravens along with a staff's attack. Eldigan then activated Growing Light. "No mercy!" he yelled, as the enemies around him suffered damage.

Veronica had a glare on her face, as she charged Ellvengar. "Just die already." she snarled, and blasted Cecilia with magic. The mage knight knelt down, gasping. "Milord...I..."

"You did well." I replied to her emotionlessly as she faded away. Sensing that it had reloaded its lot of stamina potions, I pulled the trigger. A portal appearing at the top of everyone, Veronica made sure to use this chance to charge another bolt of her tome.

"NO MERCY!" Eldigan roared as he slammed his sword into the side of Xander's and Veronica's mount, the horse rearing up in pain. Xander retaliated by swinging Siegfried, only for Camus to block the strike and swing on his horse, knocking Xander off.

Xander flew from his saddle, onto the grass. Pushing her back, he kept Veronica on the horse, allowing her to still receive buffs from the lance cavaliers...until they were attacked by Elise, then speared through by Camus.

"Hya!" I yelled as I cast blarblade once more, this time onto a bunch of red armors who were approaching. With the portal finally forming itself, I moved back a bit to brace for the impact.

"Now!" I yelled as the army fell on Veronica, creating immense disruption throughout the ranks of her army. I looked at Veronica, trying to rally her troops back with shrill yells.

I kicked my horse, signaling it to walk off. She was no longer a threat by now. Her troops were disrupted and surprised by such a stunt. The thing was...would I get anything out of this?

* * *

The answer was no. As I went to Feh the owl, I checked her for any presents from the king or queen, or some nobles for saving the main fort. None. I headed to the fountain, where it would spout out often insignificant presents for hard-done achievements. Still no.

I sighed. "Seriously..." "Hey, Summoner Fenris!" I turned towards the voice. It was Lute. "Would you mind playing a game of chess with me? I must prove that my intellect is superior."

I nodded. "Alright. Very well, but chess doesn't exactly regard for intellect..." a few minutes later, I was checkmated. "WHY?! It's only been 5 minutes!" "Hahahaaaa! I suppose I am superior after all."

"Well...chess doesn't exactly mean you have superior intellect." I pointed out. "Want an explanation?" I said, hoping that she wouldn't say yes. The explanation had been given to me by my brother, and I didn't want to memorize that or say that 5 minute-run-on sentence.

"I understand, inferior one." Lute said. "But...I am still the superior chess-player." she added. I rolled my eyes. "Quit rubbing it in." "And the better mage." "I know!" I growled.

Even though she was rather annoying at times, she was still a good talker. She would often talk with me, snark-fight me, and such things like that. While I had summoner supported her, sometimes I would still threaten to take it off, resulting her in being less superior than she was now.

I personally would not do so, but then...how did she know whether if I would or not? She didn't. So while I sometimes did it for jokes and laughs, it was still an action that had never been completed.

Walking over to the library, I took a book of magic. Flipping through the pages, I realized how similar to coding it was. Oftentimes, the basics were needed to complete even more actions and attacks. It was like coding, another language of its own.

* * *

 _11/19/17, Kyren's perspective_

Stepping through the fiery portal, I pulled my white cloak on. It was time. Two days ago, my army had been crushed by the dragon. However, according to its words, it wouldn't be available for a century or so.

Was it lying? Maybe, maybe not. Heading out of the room, I looked down to see the army of Muspell training. Even though the majority of the eternal flames was crushed, there still was a sort of advantage to it.

If the media described the entire situation as a massacre to the civilians, then there would definitely be an uproar towards the Niflhems. In fact...there were sounds of weapons being sharpened. They usually weren't this loud...unless...

Looking out of the castle walls, I noticed that the streets were a bit more dense than usual. Oh...I was correct, then. People were lined up in certain areas...war bonds, I suppose?

The propaganda had worked...even without my supervision. In fact, it would be better for me to not interfere...I didn't trust myself to not fall to the temptation of using methods that were far too ambitious.

"Sir! You are tasked to head to the City Square!" I nodded, and rushed to the town square where the council and the military officials were sitting, along with the mass public.

As hours went on, more and more numbers swarmed into the square to hear the words of the king himself. I sat on a chair, my arms crossed. Noticing that Laevatein was close by, I decided to have a word with her.

"Have the scouts detected the location of the Niflhems?" Laevatein nodded. "Yes...from where I last heard of the scouts, they were in an icy valley." I nodded. "They would be fools to put their last stand there. When we get to that valley, head north, where it is cold. It would be most probable for them to be at that location."

"Understood. I will spread the word." Laevatein monotoned back. I added, "On a second thought...where is Loki?" "Oh...she's going to ...Embla or something. I'm not keen on the details, but she seems to be going there for quite a while."

A portal opened, and Loki stepped back in, sitting besides me. I spread my hair out of my face. "Do you have no modesty, Loki? We have an audience of millions, and you still wear that attire?"

"Jormungandr, you are not any better either. Look at your cloak and mask, and reconsider your judgement." "Tch. At least nobody has a glimpse of my assets." "Is it because they're small?" "You can go check and see in the bed if you desire the answer so much."

Naturally, I was met with a slap. I considered giving retribution, but I probably wouldn't put a scratch on her. I felt a crunch as Helbindi sat down. "So...Helbindi, how's your weapon?"

"Eh, it's freaking good. I can beat their a**es pretty well with this. Makes me job easier." he said. "By the way...how's my sister going? How is her medical situation?"

Checking the files in my briefcase, I gave him a small smile. "Nothing big has happened. She's fine." He responded with a sigh of relief. I chuckled at this. Helbindi was a rough-and-tough warrior, having great combative skills, and strict when it came to training.

"I can tell you're a rather nice guy on the inside...not that you'd ever admit it." "Shut up. You've got the wrong idea. The only reason why I still support her with my income is that my mom made me do so."

Hugging myself, I rubbed my palms. "Tsundere as always." Laegjarn sat down, and urged Laevatein to move to the nearby empty seat. "I need to talk to him after this." she said to her sister.

"Onee-san, how has it been going? How has your weapon been?" Laegjarn ruffled her sister's hair. "It's been quite useful, Laevatein. How about yours?" "Well...I should have learnt how to ride a horse, or fly something."

"Well...you do know that we still have ways of empowering our infantry allies, though they're significantly harder to use." "I know, I know...it's just that they're so annoying at times. Say, what is father going to preach to the populace?"

Laegjarn looked at her sister for a second before replying. "I don't know...but it's probably something inspiring." she sighed. "The public is currently enraged with the Niflems...I suppose that he will serve to fan the heat. "

Surtr stepped onto the podium, and then cleared his throat, the magicians already have used magic to amplify his voice. While this was hardly ever used, if one could summon winds and gigantic pillars of flame with just magic, then such a little thing as amplifying sound was trivial.

(work on the speech part later, get to the battle and stuff)

"My friends and people, today we stand here with fire in our hearts. I acknowledge the fact that a few thousand have died a few days ago, and I agree that they must be avenged. However, let us not lose track of who we are just for revenge."

He cleared his throat, and then continued. "A man once said to me that technically, we didn't matter. We are just a tiny little dot in the gigantic universe, something insignificant. He said that nobody exists for a purpose, and nobody belongs anywhere."

The crowd listened on in silence as Surtr spoke with the most brutal honesty I had ever seen in my life. "The universe is cruel. It doesn't care about us any one bit. Nobody is born special. We all are tiny beings living in a gigantic universe that regards us as nothing; it doesn't even have even a semblance of regard for us. Even if we conquer Niflhem, it'll just be conquering one realm out of the thousands that exist."

The audience looked on him in stunned silence at him. Even I was taken aback as well. Surtr was not someone who struck me as nihilistic. "Who are we? An honorable warrior kingdom? The most powerful realm in the universe? To think such things like that is foolish. Ignorance is a severe weakness that has plagued us for millennium to come, as we know little of other realms."

He took a moment to pause and look at the crowd, to see if they understood what he meant. I marveled at this. While a leader's inner qualities were certainly important, his or her appearance was something that must be taken seriously as well. The reason I hardly let anyone see me practicing my fighting skills or outright fight in battle was because if one of their leaders was a weakling, then troops could possibly lose morale.

However, Surtr did not have that issue. He was large and in charge, and the presence of a strong leader strengthened the morale of the populace as well. "Many have died for nothing, for no purpose. Contrary to what many may think, there is no purpose to us. We will all die in the end, making this all in a way, meaningless."

However, with these words...it wouldn't be a long time until the crowd started to throw tomatoes. I grit my teeth...say something inspiring before everything goes to hell...

"However, in spite of this, I refuse to accept that our efforts were all meant for naught. Did they die for no purpose at all? I refuse to believe that. Just because we were never born with a purpose, does not mean we cannot find a purpose for ourselves."

People besides me nodded, as the crowd murmured at his words, the tumult slowly quieting down as Surtr continued on. "This universe, these worlds...are imperfect. I have heard of many who say that to bring peace, one must change something from inside. however...this is very tedious, and at best will be a hollow victory."

He raised his arms. "What meaning is in a victory if we have sacrificed too many? Nothing! Which is why...we must do this. This is why, we cannot use peaceful measures to bring peace, but rather, make our measures as civil as possible. Retain your honor while fighting!" he roared to the audience.

"I understand that many of you may desire vengeance, but think of our comrades. They gave the Niflhems a chance to surrender, and never once did they wrongly kill the weak nor attack one who had no weapons."

As the audience murmured, obviously over this sort of logic, Surtr continued. "While one may say that this is honor before reason, I digress. Honor is reason at times. If in battle we act as uncivilized beasts...then we shall never gain mutual respect while they reign under us. Whatever you too, do not antagonize the enemy. They are sentient beings like us. It is just...that we must do what we must do."

"If we fight...then we fight with honor, with respect towards the opposition. We are a proud warrior race, and thus, revel in this! Vengance...is a poison in both a literal and metaphorical sense. If we give into it...we are no better, no, worse than wild beasts. Therefore...I implore you, do what our dead brothers would have wanted you to do."

"Finally, I understand that some may see the dreams of conquest to be meaningless. However, is it? In a way, it is the very essence of humanity. In our life, we have different stages of change all the time. People change. We're meant to change! Even if our existence was brought to this place without meaning, we can still change ourselves to have meaning. A static world is far too boring, harmful to the very essence. Therefore...will you join me or not, brothers and sisters of our glorious kingdom?"

"YES!" the entirety of the others yelled, as the heroes approved of it as well. I let out a sigh. Turns out...this wasn't too bad. It could have been a bit better, but it had completed its

* * *

Heading to the stables, I looked at the wyvern that I had ordered. It was as big as Cyclonus, having a height of 7 feet even when it wasn't upright, and a wingspan of 20 feet. Looking at it straight in the eyes, I looked at its muzzle.

"You don't need such a thing." I said as I removed it, to be met with yells of caution...and a faceful of wyvern fire. I stared at it, my armor protecting me from the heat. "Nice try."

Looking at myself, I was a slight bit alarmed to find my silver daggers already melting. Well...at least Rahab and Leviathan were still intact. Climbing upon it, I was met with a jerk of its back.

I clung onto the reins while I put my feet into the stirrups, my time on Cyclonus helping me greatly in taming this beast. The beast thrashed and blew fire, but there was no way that it could force its rider off.

"Scratch its back! Scratch back of the neck, the nape!" I heard one of the soldiers yell. I nodded in gratitude, and then started to scratch it. The wyvern stopped thrashing, starting to calm down.

Stepping down, I put my hands on its head. Quite naturally, it roared in retaliation, and opened its jaws before a soldier slapped the muzzle on once more. I placed a hand on its now closed mouth.

"You're a vicious one. I rather like you." It retaliated by trying to headbutt me, only for me to sidestep the blow. "You're not as vicious as they say. I thought you would be even better."

It roared out of its muzzle, and struggled against the chains, trying to reach me, standing by at the corner of its room. I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?...so you wish to be my servant so much?"

Apparently this only served to fan its rage, and with a surge of energy, it ripped the chains off, much to my own shock. However...instead of just simply lunging, it swiped the chains at me, the hooks at the end gleaming.

I was only saved by a dexterous soldier who pulled me to the side. "Sir, this wyvern is not suita-" "Silence. I want this beast. It has shown me both strength and intelligence." The wyvern roared, and jumped into the air, only to be tackled by 4 other wyverns.

As strong as the wyvern was, it was no match for such a large group of wyverns, even if all of them were physically weaker than it. I looked down on it. "You'll make a great friend. But...you must be a steed before you can be a friend."

Placing my foot on its back, I hopped onto it again. "I will make sure that this beast will learn to accept me as its rider. If it wants to be stubborn, I shall show it what true stubbornness is."

* * *

Walking into the council, I wondered why I was beckoned to come over once more. The horrors of it...I had to use old English to communicate whenever a large number of dignified nobles were around. To my slight surprise, this time, only the highest of the military were summoned, as opposed to the other noblemen that had often came.

"Father, what is't yond thee has't taken us here for?" Laegjarn asked. "I wisheth to bewray to thee something yond shall increaseth our chances of vict'ry. The legendary sacred sealeth of legend, Muspellflame." Gasps across the room resounded, while I cursed myself for forgetting to check the Muspellian tomes of legends. Only I had no knowledge of it.

"Thy eminence, may thee bid me the history of this sacred sealeth of legend?" I asked. Surtr frowned at me as if he thought I was a monkey, then he laughed. "Oh, fartuous me. I forgot yond thou art not originally of our state. Very well!"

He cleared his throat, and held up the sacred seal, shaped as a badge. "This. is a sacred sealeth yond gives one the highest defenses in which anybody couldst ever imagineth. However. only one can has't t, and those unworthy art thus did burn to death by its flames." Surtr said.

I raised my eyebrow for a millisecond before putting it down to hide any potential sign of accidental disrespect. "Sire, thee already has't Sinmara. The burden of another legendary relic may-" "I knoweth. But. this is a risketh yond i am willing to taketh. Thee taketh risks oft, thee not?!"

"True..." I murmured, though I still had a slight unwillingness for him to take it. I wondered if I could convince him. Surely that wasn't impossible, but would it be worth it?

"Gah...RAAAAAGGHHHH!" Surtr roared in pain as he put the seal on his chest, leaving the rest of the room to only stare. I wondered if I should be doing something, but I wasn't about to risk such pain like that as well.

A bright, anime-cliche light filled the room, consuming Surtr. As soon as it disappeared, I rubbed my eyes to take a good look at him. Around him was a sort of aura...another thing for the king to lord over the others, not that I had a problem with it.

A sort of fire burnt in his eyes...something that caught my interest. He hadn't had that before...I do remember that he had red eyes, but what really alarmed me was that the whites of his eyes were no longer white. They were burning with the same fiery aura as his pupils were.

"Hahahahaaa! Witness the power of Muspell, and its legacy!" Surtr roared in a rather hammy fashion. I stood up. "Sire, we shalt maketh haste. The armies art did prepare, divisions organized. Anon the only thing hath left for thee to doth is to leadeth the chargeth."

"Very well! we shalt crusheth these foolish nilfhems! leaveth nay traceth of their armies hath left!" I raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off. I doubted that they would surrender anyway.

Later, I watched as the squads and the armies marched out of the kingdom, on the disobedient wyvern I had named Scourge. Scourge let out a burst of flame towards me, only for me to simply shrug it off as it was no big deal.

It tried to rush off, only for it to be restrained by chains, tied to two other wyverns. The wyverns growled at it, and Scourge snarled back. Resting a hand on its head, it started to thrash at my touch, only for the other two wyverns to restrain him even tighter.

Laevatein lead the infantry troops, as I called her out. "Laevatein...head to the north with Helbindi, and scout them. While our flying forces may have the best mobility, your infantry forces have a much better chance of sneaking around them without them noticing."

"Understood." she relayed, as the infantry troops started to move. I thought of Surtr...the Nilfhems' main act would most likely be to escort the queen as fast as the could, if they realized that they were outnumbered.

As they were moving north...they probably had something important over there...otherwise that area was too cold for the Muspellians. As powerful as Surtr was, there was still only one of Surtr and one Muspellflame. So...if I put him in the main Northern path, he could cut off their escape, and force them to take a detour, giving my flying forces the time to block out whichever path they were taking.

Setting myself off Scourge, I instructed the two wyvern knights who were my bodyguards to take care of it. Within seconds, there were already growls and shrieks as I walked towards Surtr's tent.

"Your majesty..." I said as I proposed the plan. Surtr looked at it. "HOW DARE YOU!" he roared, with a fury that I hadn't expected. "ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT SOME WILL BE SPARED FROM MY WRATH?!"

"Well...some may want to run." I timidly replied. "Most will be killed by you...hopefully all. However...it's just a backup plan." I felt his gaze upon me, almost like it was burning right into my skin, a feeling that I had not felt for long.

"...very well. Then I hope that there is no need for this backup plan." Surtr grumbled threateningly as he turned back. My eyes narrowing, I wondered what had happened? Was he in a bad mood? Most likely, but why?

Ignoring these thoughts, I got on Scourge once more, preparing my daggers. Laegjarn, who was primarily in charge of the air forces, raised Níu, as a sign to all of the others that it was time to head out. This time, I decided to leave the commanding to her. If Surtr was so angry with my method, then it would be best to keep low, so in case of a possible mishap occurred, I wouldn't have my head taken off.

"Hide behind the mountain, near the valley. On my mark, we charge them." she ordered, as the entire fleet began to fly, keeping the altitude low in order to not accidentally alert anybody.

As the fleet kept getting closer to the mountains, I saw something that irked me for a tingling moment. "Nilfhem scouts..." I growled, as they pointed at us frantically. Then an axe was brought down on their heads, with satisfying _thwacks._

Helbindi stood over their defeated forms, and then made a hand motion to verify that everything was clear. As the flying troops stayed low, Laegjarn climbed up to see what was the current situation of the enemy.

The nilfhems had set up a camp in the middle of the valley...strategically, it was a rather versatile spot. The valley had numerous routes to escape, so the main objective was to predict what kind of path would they try to take, and second, to counter any escape routes.

There were several huge divisions in play: the armored division, consisting of armor units led by Surtr. While in the past they used to be extremely slow, the availability of a newly forged spell called armor march had undermined that problem to an extent, though this would end up having to distribute the fortify armor spells and hone armor spells as well as goad and ward armor spells in a different pattern than before. However, this time, Surtr didn't lead them in this case. Instead, they were lead by Loki, as Surtr had been escorted by 4 knights with armor buffs to head to his designated position far away, using Surtr's innate armor march skill to navigate easily.

The flying division was mainly lead by Laegjarn, full of hardened and ferocious warriors. The reason why they were so effective was due to their overall good speed coupled by their buffs, along with many of them having movement skills that made escape relatively easy. A flying tome user was one of the biggest terrors one could find on the battlefield if with his or her teammates, due to the infamous blade tomes.

For the infantry division, it was lead by Helbindi. As infantry units had less access to powerful spells that their mounted counterparts could provide, Helbindi's weapon was undoubtedly a welcome sight for any troops with him. While he did have important skills such as infantry pulse and infantry-only skills like wrath, the main weapon of the infantry troops was their sneakiness. Very easily could they hide without having to worry about mounts, or overbearing armor.

As for the mounted units, they were largely self-sufficient, with their commanding figure being a lance paladin named Svaðilfari. Sporting pure silver hair, as well as the traditional golden armor of Muspell, his entire form was covered in light armor, though it didn't cover his face. Having a darker complexion, a height of 188 cm, as well as a lean yet muscular physique, it was clear that he was a hardened warrior. He was unique in the sense that he didn't have a personal weapon, only using a slaying lance+, but relied on rare and valuable skills that he had taken much time and practice to master, such as Distant counter, chill defense, speed smoke, aether, and using flashing blade 3 as his sacred seal. I hadn't seen him much in battle, but he was nothing to look down upon if he was the commanding figure.

For the heroes division, while normally it would be led by me...the dratted wyvern named Scourge required itself to be chained to other wyverns while having its master sitting on its back. While normally it would not be a problem to chain it to two flying wyverns in my own division, neither Michalis nor Valter were at their full potential to rein it in along with Minerva's wyvern, nor were the pegasi strong enough to restrain it. So now, the heroes were led by Laevatein. As there was no class division, tactics buffs were used to their fullest potential, allowing Laevatein to use...Laevatein to its full potential.

Returning to my train of thought, I looked at their place. Strategically...it would be best if I sent Surtr to the path near the river. If they were to escape... they needed to have some resource of water, and I doubted that pure snow would be enough to replace water. Furthermore, the river unusually, flowed North opposed to the usual south. So...the ideal path to escape. So therefore, Surtr should go over there in order to block their route.

I looked down. One of my main concerns were the Niflhem civilians, and my unwillingness for them to be caught in the crossfire. So...what was the best way to engage without unnecessary casualties?

Svaðilfari ran out with a larger number of calvarymen, the number topping nearly ten thousand, or so it seemed. Through Loki's illusionary magic, the numbers of the forces were bloated to make it seem like that there was a force of overwhelmingly powerful troops.

In this case, what would the Nilfhems think? They couldn't outrun the calvary forces, as not every single one of them was mounted nor suited to escape the speed of horses, and they couldn't risk the civilians' lives.

Therefore, the best option would be for the Niflhem army to engage the calvary forces, separating the civilians from the Muspellian troops. And as I predicted, their choice was to engage.

However...there was a tiny flaw that I hadn't failed to notice. While it seemed like there were many cavaliers, the total number was only six hundred at most, and the Niflhems' forces at least the number of one thousand and five hundred strong.

Therefore, it wouldn't be long till they started to see through the facade and regain morale. Laegjarn yelled at her troops to fly, and the winged beasts started to carry the armored knights towards the enemy. While the enemy was engaged and starting to overwhelm the calvary, the flyers would drop the armored knights onto the Niflhem army, creating huge disorientation within their ranks.

With the knights wreaking havoc with their high weight and tough defenses, I reined in Scourge as Laegjarn took advantage of the disorientation and lead. While my daggers were meant to be purely supportive, Scourge was not at all supportive in any way.

"Release the chains. Let him have some fun." I ordered the two wyvern knights, who hesitated for a second. "What is it? Do you not trust that this is a clear victory?" I glared at the two of them.

Nodding, they released the chains. I held my twin daggers tightly, as Scourge leapt into the air, shrieking at the enemy before pouncing on a pegasus knight. The rider separated from its steed, and crashed to the ground with a wyvern on top of it.

Scourge roared, and started to burn and tear at the soldier, but I could tell quite clearly that as soon as the rider had hit the ground, he or she had instantly died due to the shock. "Now Scourge...break their ranks, now." I commanded, pointing at a squadron of soldiers who hadn't submitted to the severe disorientation.

Roaring in his blind fury, Scourge leapt at the huddling soldiers. As I took a closer look, I was left with a slight thought of worry. They were in the Roman formation known as the _Tetsudo,_ which was Latin for tortoise. While they were by no means fast with such a formation, Scourge preferred to overpower his opponents with sheer force, and I had second thoughts about letting him engage.

Before Scourge could jump, a bloodcurdling shriek was heard, as even the half-wild wyvern itself paused. From what I could see...men on both sides were actually parting to let someone come through. No...not someone, two people.

Svaðilfari's stallion galloped in, rearing in the air for a full 10 seconds before coming down with a heavy stomp, while the rider itself twirled his lance with intense dexterity with only one hand, to the point that it would be more believable that it was spinning due to an external force rather than his own hand. As if to answer him, a princely figure in royal Niflhem garb landed a few yards away from her, in front of him, catching the sword that he had thrown up into the air during his jump, and ending with a diagonal slash.

As soon as I saw the prince, I felt chills down my spine. He had tried to kill me before, and it was only by my own wits and luck that I had managed to escape alive. If he decided to target me once more, I did not know even with more soldiers to fend him off, would I be safe.

"Who is the rider who presides ere me, Prince Hrid of Niflhem?" Hrid's voice rang out throughout the area, loud and clear to every soldier watching. Svaðilfari answered while stopping the lance to point at the prince, "Tis I, Sir Svaðilfari of Muspell. Prince Hrid of Niflhem... I dare thee to a duel. Thee knoweth very well what thy name could beest spoken of if 't be true thee doth not accept. Better to kicketh the bucket with thy honor than to liveth with shame, is t not true? "

Hrid answered in an equally rich voice, "I concur, Sir Svaðilfari. at which hour I wast young, I dreamt of being a knight. While a knight I may not beest, a knight's morals I shalt uphold. I accept thy dare, Sir Svaðilfari. I only expect one of us to leaveth this battlefield alive." he twirled his lance. "Cometh at me, knight of Muspell! if 't be true death is what thee wilt bringeth, then knoweth that I am not afraid! "

Svaðilfari dismounted, to which I was first struck with confusion, then I understood. They were knights, and therefore, they upheld their own morals. Initially I had thought the act of getting off his horse, and thus being unable to receive any of the spells such as goad calvary and ward calvary would put him at a disadvantage. However...this was just an act to make his battle with the prince far more interesting as well as fair. After all...what worth is a fight if it's not enjoyable?

Hrid charged towards the lancer, swinging his sword with deadly precision. Dodiging the first strike, Svaðilfari blocked the second strike with his slaying lance, and then sprung back, using his powerful legs to propel himself backwards. However, Hrid, being a combat pragmatist, charged forward, not intending to give his opponent the time to recover from his own mistake.

Svaðilfari was not at any means unprepared. The two came to blows once more, their weapons clashing and sending out beautiful sounds in the air, sharp yet accurate enough to possibly cut a petal into two. Their blades flashing so fast that my own eyes had trouble keeping up, Hrid stepped back, before releasing a multitude of icicles.

Apparently this was the magic of Niflhems...it indeed was skilled of him to be so deadly in the ways of the sword, yet still have the capacity of advanced magic such as this...he truly was of royal blood.

Svaðilfari however, countered it with blasts of flame coming out from his fingers. I raised my eyebrows slightly. If I was correct, then he had just used his own life energy to create a bolt of fire to counter the icicles that Hrid had used to attack him. It was not something that one could easily master, and even when mastered, it shouldn't be trifled with.

Hrid looked at his newly-found rival. "Well well...it hath been long since I has't hath found one whom hath stoodeth in mine presence for such an amount of time." "Forsooth, I didst not expect less from the prince of Nifl himself." was Svaðilfari's reply before attacking once more, this time even faster than before.

Currently, their movements were nigh-indescribable. For a moment I had thought that they were simply standing and glaring at each other, but in actuality, they were striking at each other as well as defending with so much precision and speed that it was almost impossible to tell by first glance.

Once they jumped back to take ground, it became much easier to tell. For a few moments, Svaðilfari was on the offensive, with Hrid defending with his sword, and then a few moments later Hrid was pushing the other back.

Jumping into the air, Svaðilfari came down onto his opponent like an eagle, and began to jab repeatedly at the other furiously. Hrid found himself cornered, but then found a spot that Svaðilfari's speedy tactics would inevitably concur.

With the right timing, Hrid stopped dodging, and landed a heavy blow on the slaying lance, stunning Svaðilfari for a good time, and giving himself to recover from the little cuts that he had suffered. "You're quite the skilled lancer. You have my praise."

"And you have my thanks. However...such respect is not enough to prevent our clash!" "Indeed." the two charged at each other once more, fighting on for a good 5 minutes, before a trumpet resounded.

Hrid looked up. "It seems that I am needed elsewhere. It has been quite the enjoyment in our clash, Sir Svaðilfari." "As to you, Prince Hrid." I looked as Hrid warped away. A captain ran up to me.

"Sir Jormungandr, what do we do?" "Svaðilfari will lead the majority of the troops. Meanwhile, I want a squad of 10 flyers to come with me. And chain this wyvern up once more." "Yes sir."

Flying with 10 airborne knights by my side, I drew Rahab and Leviathan. "Make haste." I commanded, as all of them charged at the soldiers protecting the royal family. Following Hrid's trail, I had these ten to hunt the royal family down.

The enemy soldiers aimed their weapons towards the flying knights, and I spurred Scourge forward, determined to stay by their sides. After all...does a leader deserve to lead if he or she does not face the same dangers as his or her followers? Also...my weapons had powerful effects that made up for their absolute lack of damage.

"Code Formation: Spiked Barrier!" I yelled, before the wyvern knights then held their weapons out, jabbing repeatedly at the charging soldiers as they hid behind their armor and shields.

I couldn't resist a smirk of satisfaction as the knights, huddled close together, jabbed repeatedly at the right times, impaling and taking out any soldier foolish enough to charge into the fray. Twirling Rahab and Leviathan in both of my hands, I pointed Rahab at the royal family, speaking in a refined tone that I reserved for public meetings with nobility. "Thee shalt falleth hither."

A figure on a horse drew a familiar-looking tome. "Methinks not, mask'd knight." As she activated her tome, I prepared to yell the name of my armor, until the action of one of my troops stopped my from doing so.

A pegasus knight galloped in front of the blast, intending to take the full brunt of the spell. I nearly told her to stop, until I saw her special skill: Aegis. The pegasus knight withstanding the blow, two wyvern knights sped at the princess, stabbing at Gunnthra.

Luckily for her, her mare reared, shielding the blows, but even then, the princess fell off with a heavy thud. The two wyvern knights retreated, only to be struck down by a lance-wielding figure. "My family, allow me to handle these scoundrels." the figure spoke to the rest. I pointed Leviathan at her. "Who is't art thou who is't dareth to standeth in mine own presence?"

"Thou mayest refer to me as fjorm, princess of Niflhem." Fjorm drew her legendary lance. "Cometh anon, i am not afraid! shalt we square?!" "forsooth, a square t shalt beest. thou mayest refer to me as Princess Laegjarn of Muspellhiem! I am thy opponent!" a voice rang out as Princess Laegjarn landed in front of my forces, and swung Níu.

"Hark! Aren't thee the wench who hath fallen prey to mine lance? Thy words amuseth me to nay endeth!" "Verily, verily! sadly, thee underestimate mine own art! Prepareth to beest bested!"

The two women glared at each other, before charging in with their battle cries.

* * *

 **Omake:**

Surtr: "And by this sealeth, none shalt beest able to conquer me in combat! Generic loud anime screameth!"

Laegjarn: "father, thy power is overflowing. I sendeth mine own happiest regards to thee."

Laevatein: "As doth I."

Laegjarn: "However...is th're a reasoneth wherefore we're speaking in such a plaited matter?"

Jormungandr: "Tis a fair pointeth. Wherefore art we doing such a thing?"

Helbindi: "Alas yond! t sounds merit, so alloweth's keepeth doing t! (It sounds cool, so let's keep doing it!)"

Loki: "Forsooth!"

Jormungandr: "thee people shalt beest the reasoneth for mine own death!"

* * *

 **Anyway...sh*t, it's been a month since I've posted. Maybe even more...**

 **But anyway, I'm back, after internships as well as medical issues that I will not disclose.**

 **The summer was pretty hard for me, being so busy during it, but I reassure you all that I'll be back on schedule, writing the next chapter out.**


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